Ad Arcana
by angeltrap
Summary: AU, 19th century London. Murder and mayhem had always seemed to shadow their steps wherever they walked, but this time the bloody trail led a little too close to theirs. LightxL MelloxMatt
1. Red Rum

**Title:** Ad Arcana

**Author:** Cassidy304

**Pairings:** LightxL, MelloxMatt, some form of BBxL, possible others in less important roles (and revealing them would spoil the plot :D)

**Rating:** M

**Genre:** romance, mystery, drama, supernatural, slight horror... it's a long list. :'D

**Warnings: **Yaoi and yuri (romantic and/or sexual relationships between two men or two women), violence, blood, character death, mentioned (sexual) child abuse, hinted non-con

**Summary:** _AU 19th century London. Murder and mayhem had always seemed to shadow their steps wherever they walked, but this time the bloody trail brushed theirs a little too close. LightxL_

**Disclaimers:** Most of you probably know that "red rum" is from a movie called The Shining... Obviously, it's "murder" spelled backwards.

I've been told that _The Death and Burial of Cock Robin_ is a well-known nursery rhyme; I came across it while reading the _Cain Saga_ by Kaori Yuki. It was used in a murder case context in the manga as well, so it definitely wasn't my idea to use it this way. Only the additional stanza is my work. I'm merely making use of the good idea and the lovely characters of Death Note.

**A/N:** I messed with their ages – deliberately, how scandalous. :D And I know I'm better at humor, but I hope you'll give this a chance.

Also, I'm the slowest updater in the world. D: Expect the worst but always hope for the best. I study full time and work part time, and spend the rest of my already very scarce time being a social butterfly. I. Write. Slowly.

Publishing this today because today (or _yesterday, _because it's past midnight...) is, in the Finnish calendar, the name day of Valo, which is "light" in Finnish. The notion was so lame that I just HAD to publish something today, and quite frankly, I didn't have anything else ready. XD Happy name day Light-o.

* * *

Chapter 1

**Red Rum**

"_Twinkle, twinkle, little star_," a young boy sang to melody of his music box, "_How I wonder what you are... Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..._"

The young man sitting opposite to him extended his dark wooden cane to part the curtains of the window of their train compartment. "Matt, it's raining, and the curtains were down. You can't possibly see the stars."

The boy, Matt, shot his caretaker – a brother? A parent? An uncle? A friend? Matt wasn't sure what to call him – a half annoyed, half amused glance. "You take everything so literally, Sir."

The weird young man smiled his weird little smile and leaned back in his seat. The light hanging from the roof of the compartment was swinging along the movements of the train, and the golden gleam of it danced on the nobleman's pale, delicate face, creating deep shadows under his dark eyes. "Please, don't call me that," he chided. "You are now officially a Lawliet as well. You are my half brother – the child of my poor late mother and a servant. Never forget that, and never say anything else."

Matt smiled slightly, looking at the small music box he held on his palms. The man had given it to him three weeks ago, after practically adopting him. "But that's not really the truth," he said.

The young lord reached out and snapped the music box shut, a stern look on his face as he looked at the boy. "Never – say – anything – else," he repeated, stressing every word. "You are old enough to understand that in this world, the wealthier you are, the truer your words are, no matter how much you lie – and I am wealthy and powerful enough to claim that the sky is green. If I say you're my half brother, people will soon start remembering that my mother _did_ have a red-headed manservant roughly fifteen years ago, and that she fell ill soon after he was fired for stealing. They'll remember that my father traveled a lot, that my mother was lonely, and that after the servant left, she was kept hidden in the castle for the rest of her miserable life. If I tell them the right things, they'll even remember a maid escaping from the castle one night, a small bundle in her arms, a year after Lady Lawliet was locked up in her tower, and right before my father returned from his journey."

"_Did_ Lady Lawliet have a red-headed manservant?" Matt asked sharply.

"No," the younger Lord Lawliet frowned disapprovingly, as if there was a red-headed servant somewhere that had failed to show up at the Lawliet castle when he had been supposed to, "but one had auburn hair. That should be close enough. Now tell me: what is your name?"

"Matt Jeevas."

"_No_. Not anymore. Matt, don't you understand?" L Lawliet sighed and ran a hand through his wild, raven black hair. "I don't have anyone else left. This is the only way I can keep you. Won't you please be my family?"

The boy sighed as well, blowing his red, overgrown bangs out of his eyes. They fell right back. "Fine. My name is Matt Lawliet. I apologize for my rudeness, oh ladies and gentlemen, for I have only been noble for three weeks and trash for fourteen years, and therefore can't know how to behave."

"Please cut out the sarcasm." L regarded him with confused eyes. "I don't understand. Aren't you happy to have a family? A home? I honestly thought I was, for once, doing something selfless by taking a street orphan under my wing."

The redhead shrugged, swinging his skinny legs back and forth, back and forth. "I am. It's just... I know I'm just a street kid and that I used to lie and steal for a living, but when my Papa lived, he kept telling me that lies would always come to daylight eventually. Based on my experience, he was right."

"It's nothing but a little white lie that gives me a brother and you a home. How could that harm anyone?"

Matt cocked his head to the side, eying the young, black-haired earl with his deep, brown eyes. "Brother, have you ever heard the story about the boy who guarded the sheep?"

L shook his head. "My childhood wasn't very normal. I know very few stories. Please, enlighten me."

"Well, like I said, the boy guarded the sheep of a small village, and at least once a day, he yelled, 'Wolves, wolves! Help, or they'll eat the sheep!', and all the men of the village came to chase the wolves away. And every time, they would realize that the boy had fooled them for fun. Then one day, the wolves really came, and the boy called for help. But now everyone thought he was just lying, and they wouldn't come to his aid no matter how much he yelled, and the wolves ate him."

L tapped his cane against his lips, looking thoughtful. "Actually, the wolves wouldn't have attacked the boy if there was a flock of helpless sheep available -"

"Lies," Matt interrupted, "tend to get bigger and bigger as time goes by. Because we tell everyone that I'm Lady Lawliet's bastard child, they'll soon start comparing your looks with those of your parents, wondering if you're theirs either. You'll have to lie more to cover up the original lies. Someone will start remembering or finding out things, and if what you have told me of your family is anything to go by, there's a whole pile of skeletons in the closets of the Lawliet Castle. Something will come up – maybe a real half brother, maybe the auburn-haired servant who's supposed to be my father, maybe a whole family tree full of forbidden relationships will be revealed."

L heaved a frustrated sigh, looking out of the window with a slightly sulky expression on his face. "Well, then tell me how you would have handled the situation, Mr Jeevas!"

Matt smiled, winding his music box again and opening its lid. Earl Lawliet could be so childish at times, so childish that Matt often felt like their ages were reversed. "I would have been happy to be your servant, bring you tea and call you Master Lawliet. That way, I could have stayed forever by your side. That way, I would have had a home, and you some to take care of you and someone to listen to you. That way, I wouldn't have to be scared of future. But, seeing as I have already been adopted into your family, I'll just hold my head high and try to be worth the title."

The earl didn't reply to that. Matt wasn't sure whether it was because the man was so touched, or because he was trying to understand why anyone would prefer a servant's life to that of a nobleman. L Lawliet had always led a glamorous, luxurious life, however miserable it might have been; he would never understand his new brother's attachment to his simple rogue life.

"_Twinkle, twinkle, little star,_" Matt sang quietly, wondering if L would realize that he was the star of his song. "_How I wonder what you are_..."

* * *

"_Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow_ – brother, brother, have you heard? Lord Lawliet has returned!"

Light Yagami turned to look at his younger sister, whom he had heard approaching miles away because of her annoying habit to sing as she skipped the corridors of the Yagami Manor. Sayu had just returned from the town with her maid, and he had been expecting a long and tiresome report of her day, the color and material of her new dress, Lady Takada's rumored fiance, or just about anything that he had no interest in, but this was something new.

"He has? Any idea where he's been for the last seven years?" he muttered, feigning disinterest and keeping his eyes on the newspaper he was reading.

Sayu shrugged her shoulders, dancing around the table to peck her brother's cheek. "No one knows. But I heard he'll be at the ball tonight, so you can ask him yourself." Her painted lips twisted into a mischievous smile. "Personally, Lightie."

Light shot an irritated glance at the 15-year-old girl and shook her small, white hands off his shoulder. "Are you implying something?"

"Oh, I would never!" Sayu blinked her wide, warm brown eyes innocently. Light knew how much havoc and destruction those eyes had wreaked among the young noblemen of London, and wasn't fooled by them. "I just thought that since Lord Lawliet was a childhood friend of my dear brother, he'd be delighted to meet him again..."

Light swatted his sister with the newspaper and turned back to his coffee. "I understand that, but as you know, Lawliet's disappearance was surrounded by mysteries. If he's alive and hasn't bothered to contact me, his supposedly only friend, in seven years, I see no reason to continue where we left off."

"Mm-hmm." Sayu smiled knowingly and glanced at his knuckles, which had paled slightly because he was gripping the paper with so much force. "Well, I still hope you'll accompany me to the ball," she chirped, leaning in to steal another peck on the young man's temple, and skipped off to her room.

"Of course I will", Light called after her. "The hounds will eat you alive if I leave you unsupervised for a minute! I humbly admit that I'm the most gorgeous, most intelligent and strongest older brother a girl can have, but not even I can beat hundreds of lovestruck fools in one night!" He took a sip of his coffee before adding, half shouting, "And if you're thinking about wearing that green dress you wore last time, forget it! You can show off your... chest when you're older and no longer my responsibility!"

He could hear the girl's bright, bubbly laughter from the stairs, and swore to himself that if she dared to show anything under her collarbones, he'd never let her go to a ball again. He worshiped his sister, but sometimes it was hard to live here alone with her... and the servants, of course. But their mother had passed away some years ago, and their father, Duke Yagami, lived mostly in the main castle in north, taking care of their family estate. He had sent his children to live in the city house so they could have the finest education and the best social connections, and had probably no idea of the long line of broken hearts both his son and daughter left behind wherever they went.

So L Lawliet had returned. Light looked at the newspaper; it was completely crumbled in his grip. Sighing, he folded the paper and put it aside, drowning himself into sweet, sweet coffee before his servant would make him change his clothes for the ball.

Yes, he had missed L – sorely. He had been fourteen when the other one had disappeared right after his 15th birthday; they had been friends for what had felt like an eternity for two young souls, and they had been convinced they were inseparable. Well, at least Light had been. Despite what had happened on L's 15th birthday, what had made the other boy flee without so much as a note to anyone, when Light had grown from boy to man, it had been those dark eyes and delicate, white features he had seen in his dreams. Later, he had gotten the reputation of a ladies' man, and it had taken very long from even himself to realize that all the girls he deemed worthy of his time were fair-skinned and dark-haired.

But none of them was quite as beautiful as the mysterious heir of Lawliets, and not a single one was even close to his intelligence.

And years ago, Light's dreams had turned into nightmares, his graving had given way to hatred, and the girls he now chose were blonde and dumb. What had once existed between the two very young noblemen had been nothing but a childish promise; the insecurity caused by their bodies and minds reaching adulthood at mismatched times had made them confuse friendship with love – but it still stung that L had never returned. No one said no to Light Yagami, and no one broke a promise made to him.

And now the man was apparently back, and Light was suddenly reminded of the disarray his thoughts had been in for the first two years after he had left. The old Earl Lawliet had died a year ago, and Light had never thought the dark-eyed youth would still come back to demand what was his.

What would he do now?

* * *

"Have you heard? Young Lord Lawliet..."

"Yes, he's here! I can't believe it! I thought he was dead!"

"Well, he's an earl now, and that horrible man – may he rest in peace and never come back to haunt this world – is dead. Why wouldn't he return?"

"But why didn't he return a year ago, when old Lawliet died?"

"I heard he brought a young boy with him..."

"That's correct, and he doesn't treat him like a servant. Who could it be?"

"He's got red hair. Isn't it obvious? The Lawliets have always been a family with dark, dark secrets. My father said there was something truly strange and unsettling about Lord Lawliet's disappearance. Maybe the boy is a witch..."

"Hush! How can you say something disrespectful like that? No nobleman would have dealings with witches and demons!"

"Say whatever you want. There has always been something wrong with the Lawliets, and our poor late Earl was probably the most wicked of them all. I wouldn't be surprised if his son was just as bad..."

"Be quiet! Young L Lawliet may have been a shy and strange kid, but never evil!"

"Oh, look! There they are!"

Light rolled his eyes at the whispered gossiping taking place near him; Lady Takada, Lady Amane, Sir Matsuda and some other less important people were definitely enjoying having fresh blood to taint with their rumors. Not that they were intentionally trying to damage anyone – well, most of them, at least – but that was what their gossiping usually led to.

But now they were momentarily quiet, and Light followed their eyes to a young man who had just entered the hall. The man's back was turned to him as he bowed to Lord Takada, the host of the ball, and nudged the red-headed boy standing next to him to remind him to bow as well. Light took a few steps backwards so he could regard the man from the safety of an alcove without being noticed himself.

The new Earl Lawliet turned and let his gaze scan the ballroom. Light's heart seemed to stop entirely for a moment when those dark, wide eyes brushed past him.

L had changed; or rather, he hadn't. While Light had grown into a handsome, well-built young man, delicate and slim in a noble way, but broad-shouldered enough to appear strong and reliable, L had merely gained height. The raven-haired man was still as thin as he had been all those years ago, his already fair skin had turned paper-white. His dark eyes, which had always been shadowed by his bangs, had sunken even deeper into his skull, and he looked like he hadn't slept at all after leaving. His hands, as he placed one of them on the red-headed kid's shoulder and introduced him to Lord Takada, looked so fragile that Light was surprised they weren't shaking from the effort. His back was ever so slightly bent, as if he had been weighed down by many burdens. He was no longer beautiful like the sad-eyed child he had been, but attractive in a darker, more mysterious way.

Light couldn't take his eyes off him.

"Ah! Earl Lawlieeet!" Lady Misa Amane called cheerily as the man walked past them. L stopped as he heard her voice, and it seemed to Light that his shoulders slumped a bit more, before he turned with a small, polite smile.

"Miss Misa," he greeted, joining the ring of noble social butterflies with the redhead shuffling right behind him. "Long time no see."

"Well, you can hardly blame that on us!" Misa giggled, holding out her glove-clad hand for L to brush his lips against. "Where on earth have you been?"

L smiled a little, a smile that was just as polite as it was false. "My father sent me to live with my uncle in Winchester. I finished my education there and left to travel around Europe before returning home. A year ago, I received the word of my poor father's passing, but there were... some things more than obscure in his testament, so I had to make one more journey before coming back."

The ring of heirs and heiresses made understanding noises. "Oh! And who is this?" Misa asked then, tilting her pretty, blonde head to look at the boy L had brought with him.

This time, L's smile was slightly more genuine. "This is the obscurity in the testament that I mentioned. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to my long lost brother, Matthew Lawliet."

"Pleased to meet you," Matthew greeted them smoothly. "But please, call me Matt." He was small for his age, but stood as tall as he could and held his head high like a proper nobleman; but Light could see a faint flicker of uncertainty in those brown eyes, and his movements were slightly hesitant, as if he had to go the hierarchy of the others through in his mind before bowing to them. This kid had not been labeled as 'noble' all his life.

"Oh my!" Misa and the other girls gushed; Lady Kiyomi Takada didn't squeal like the others did, but she eyed the boy with curiosity as well. The young men of the small circle surrounded the youth with numerous questions, and in a quiet, almost insecure voice, he started to tell them how he had lived in the streets and in multiple orphanages before L had finally found him and told him of his bloodline. As the nobles listened, enthralled by the story, L saw his chance and sneaked into a nearby balcony to have a moment of peace, as he had never enjoyed being around so many people.

Unfortunately, Light's eyes had been glued to him all night, and as the raven-haired man disappeared behind the curtain, the young duke-to-be left his hiding place in the alcove and followed him silently.

"Well, they say the murderer always returns to the crime scene, but I must say, I never believed you would be stupid enough to do it."

L, who had been leaning to the railing and watching the cloudy sky, froze at his words. For a moment, Light stood there staring at his childhood friend's back in the dark; then, slowly, the other man turned to face him.

"... Light?" He blinked his huge eyes and attempted a tentative smile. "It's been so long..."

"That's right," Light said grossly. "And why is that? I rather thought we had something to talk about after what happened last time we met – and then you go and disappear on me for seven years."

L's smile vanished and was replaced with a frown. "I thought my father told everyone I was sent to Winchester to study," he replied, leaning back against the railing. "Which was, in a way, the truth."

"I didn't believe it," Light said quietly, walking slowly closer. "You would have never left without saying goodbye to me... or so I thought."

A look of pain flashed on L's pale face and he lowered his eyes. "I would have never left at all had it been my decision."

Light closed the remaining distance between them and hooked his finger under the other man's chin, making him look up with startled, wary eyes. Light stared back at them and was no longer sure whether it was anger or something completely else that was burning within him. "Red rum, red rum," he whispered slowly. "Ever seen a red rum, L Lawliet? I thought you said we were too old to play red rum anymore. Or could it be that's exactly why you decided to twist it the other way around?"

L's already huge eyes had widened at his first words. Light could see his own reflection in them, they were so close to each other. "I didn't kill her, Light," the raven-haired man managed to force out.

"Funny, because I saw you do it," Light hissed, gripping the other man's arms with much more force than he had intended. He couldn't help it; memories were flashing in front of his eyes, memories he had kept blocked for years... the corpse of a maid, lying on the ground like a broken rag doll, the look in her unseeing eyes, and the figure looking at him from the broken window...

"Light... I was in my room when she died," L tried to convince him, an edge of panic in his voice. Light could see from his eyes that he had suddenly become very aware of the vast empty space behind him, and the cold marble against the small of his back. "I could barely even move – Light, let's not talk about this here. Why don't I come visit you tomorrow and explain everything –"

L's breath hitched when Light released one of his arms to bring his hand to the back of the raven-haired man's head and leaned closer. Light could feel his sharp intake of breath on his own lips...

"Well, now. I didn't know this balcony was adults only."

The two young noblemen jumped hastily away from each other, L almost stumbling over the railing. Light caught him and helped him regain his balance, but retreated his hands quickly under the judging eyes of Matt Lawliet.

"_Brother_," the boy said in a deeply irritated voice, stressing the word, "if you ever dare to dump me again like that, I swear I'll..."

A piercing scream shattered the air and drowned whatever threat Matt had been about to say. It was followed by gasps and more screaming, and the sound of someone running.

"Murder! Murder!" someone was shouting. "Fetch a doctor! Get the police here!"

A short glance was exchanged between the two noblemen, and then Light had dashed off, followed closely by L, who only stopped to place his hands on Matt's shoulders for a second. "Stay with the crowd!" he told the boy before rushing after the auburn-haired nobleman.

The ballroom was in a chaos. Men were roaring, women were screaming, everyone was running around and no one was doing anything useful.

"Oh, God! Why? God!" Lady Kiyomi Takada was wailing, holding onto Matsuda and sobbing against his shoulder. Matsuda had wrapped his arms tightly around the distraught woman, staring into emptiness with the eyes of someone who was trying to swallow his own tears.

"Light! Brother!"

Light turned around at his sister's voice, and suddenly his arms were full of black, curled hair and that cursed green dress. "Sayu? Are you all right?" He took the sobbing girl by her arms, holding her out to inspect her, much like he had held L only minutes ago, though far more gently.

"I'm fine," she hiccuped, clutching his jacket and burying her face into it again. "But oh Light, they say it's Lady Amane...! Oh, God..."

Light turned around; there was a wounded woman in a maid's outfit, unconscious and held by one of the elderly lords, who was still calling for a doctor... Light followed the bloody footprints she had apparently made before collapsing, L was already running that way – Light shoved his sister into the arms of the red-headed kid who had followed them and ran after him.

He almost crashed into L, who had stopped dead on his tracks after entering the corridor the bloody footsteps came from.

"Light!" the raven-haired man let out a strangled gasp and took his wrist in a deathlike grip. "Look!"

Light looked, and for the rest of his life, he wished he hadn't.

Misa Amane was slumped against the wall at the end of the corridor. Her head had lolled to the left, and her blue eyes were wide and empty. Her beautiful blonde locks were flowing over her blood red dress, and her hands were resting uselessly on the floor. Her chest had been slashed twice; the cuts formed a neat X. An arrow was stuck right between her breasts, in the point where the two cuts crossed each other.

Above her head, the wall had been painted with something red and still wet.

It said, _I killed Cock Robin_.

* * *

1) What kind of a 19th century England is that supposed to be? Ever heard of history lessons?

Yeah, well, I've never been to London, and I don't know all that much about the history of England. And it seems to clash with my plot slightly, so I'm not going to even try to make them match. :'D Think of this as an alternate universe fic in more than just one way. It's a whole another world, a whole another London, and a whole another Death Note cast...

I'm also aware that most of the Death Note names don't exactly sound like English names, but... too bad. XD I did consider calling Light Nightgod instead of Yagami (that would be because Yagami is written with the kanji of "night" and "god" in Japanese), but dismissed the idea because it didn't fit my plot. I think I'm going to use that in some other story.

2) Misa died D: / \o/

I feel kinda bad for killing her D: I actually like her, at least when she isn't trying to stuff her enviable model body between my OTP. So Misa fans: don't worry, I'll treat her well here. And Misa haters: rejoice, for she is dead.


	2. Quiet

A/N: My twisted humor seems to be a great deal more popular than my attempts at more serious stuff. (Or maybe it's just that my clumsy English makes this less likable? Hmm... Well, I'm learning here. :D) _And I though my jokes were bad_...

Anyways, it's flashback time, spiced with my very first attempt at any kind of fruity action in English, and some crooked detective-ing. Oh, and my first time writing Lester. :'D

* * *

Chapter 2

**Quiet**

_Who killed Cock Robin?_

_I, said the Sparrow_

_with my bow and arrow_

_I killed Cock Robin_

Finally, that chirpy little wench in her whore-red dress was disposed of.

* * *

"_Matsuda, you are the murderer!"_

"_Whaaat? How did you know?" the brown-haired boy's mouth fell open. "That fast?"_

_Light laughed, walking to L and resting one of his arms on his friend's narrow shoulders. "I hope you're not planning on becoming a murderer, Touta! Your poker face wouldn't fool even your reflection..."_

_Everyone laughed as well, even Matsuda, who looked slightly confused but otherwise happy. "I don't get it, I was trying to look as innocent as possible," he admitted._

"_That exactly was your mistake," L told him. "If you want to look innocent, you don't blink your eyes and whistle off the note."_

"_And you might want to cut out the sneaky glances you kept shooting at everyone else, as well," Light added with a smirk._

_Misa, who had been the victim, giggled and got up from the floor. "Aww, it's no fun playing cross murderer with you two!" she said, pecking Matsuda on the cheek to cheer him up, even though he had just "killed" her. "You're way too smart!"_

_Light and L glanced at each other and grinned slightly. "So true, Misa," they chimed, "so true!"_

_The door to the dark-haired boy's room opened, and Light's 8-year-old little sister peeked in. "Are you still playing murderer?" she asked._

"_No, Sayu, we just finished," L replied, smiling at the little girl._

"_Aww, no fair!" The girl pouted. "I wanna play too!"_

_Light shook his head adamantly. "You're way too small! We'd walk right over you."_

"_I could be the killer!" Sayu's eyes brightened at the idea. "Then no one could kill me!"_

"_But L the detective would catch you in a heartbeat and put you in prison," Kiyomi teased the girl._

_Sayu's face fell. "I don't wanna go to prison..." she murmured, deeply disturbed by this conflict._

"_Absolutely no," Light denied, looking horrified at the thought. "Besides, it's getting late already. Mogi should take you home."_

_As if summoned, the man arrived, bowing and informing them that it was time for Lady Sayu to return to the Yagami Manor. One by one, the servants of the other youngsters came to tell them that their carriages were ready; the teenage nobles of London left, waving goodbye and wishing L a happy birthday one more time._

"_Nooo!" Sayu cried, hanging onto Light's arm, the last to leave. "I wanna stayyyy! Mogiii, why can Light stay?"_

_The man smiled his rare smile. "Because Master Light asked Master Yagami's permission beforehand, Miss Sayu. Now, would you please follow me? It's well past your bedtime, if you don't mind me saying."_

"_I mind!" Sayu sniffled, latching onto L's hand instead. "L, please please please let me stay too! I'll sleep on the floor! I won't eat much, and I promise I'll be good!"_

_Heartbreaking! L braced himself against the little girl's tears, and knelt in front of her. "Miss Sayu, the night you sleep in this castle, you'll have a whole room prepared for you, and I'll be dead before I see you sleeping on the floor. But I can't let you stay tonight, because your mother would definitely tell your maid to beat me with a broom. You must ask your parents' permission before you can stay here."_

_Sayu giggled at the thought of their fat cleaner maid running after the raven-haired boy, wielding the very same broom she used to shoo the cats out of her way. "But I can sleep here some other time? Pinky promise?" she asked, holding out her little finger._

_L smiled and locked his little finger with that of the girl's. "Pinky promise."_

_That convinced Sayu, and she finally left with Mogi, leaving the two boys alone. It was really getting late; they should have been asleep already._

"_Well," Light laughed, stretching as he walked towards L's huge, soft bed. "That was like playing red rum with 5-year-olds."_

_L chuckled as well, and went to his wardrobe to change into something more comfortable. "Indeed. And, well... don't you think we're getting a bit old to play cross murderer or even red rum?"_

_Light stopped in the middle of pulling his shirt on, and turned to stare at the older boy. Too old to play red rum? The thought had never entered his mind. Ever since Light's mother had caught them playing detectives almost ten years ago, inventing crimes that had even then been so clever that Sachiko Yagami had feared they might end up in real use, Light had never considered their game as something they might grow out of. Their terrified parents, shocked by the brilliant yet deadly dangerous plots their kids could come up with, had strictly told them to never play that game again; the boys had agreed, but never obeyed. From that day on, the game was called red rum instead of murder – not a very clever way to hide the fact that it was still the same, but it had seemed very secretive back then, and they never thought of changing the name._

"_What do you mean?" Light asked quietly, not willing to admit how hurt he felt. So L thought their game was childish?_

"_I mean," came the muffled reply from beneath the fabric as L pulled his shirt off, "aren't we old enough to make it _real_?" Light's eyes widened. Make the _murders _real? "Not the murders, idiot," L continued, looking amused, knowing full well what his friend had just thought. "The catching the culprit part. You know we're much more intelligent than most people in this miserable place. Think about it – what would it be like to be a detective for real?"_

_Light hesitated. "L, you're going to be an earl, and I'll become a duke one day. How do you think we'll have time?"_

_L shrugged. "I don't know. I'm not planning that far – that's years ahead, anyway. I'm talking about what to do with the years before inheriting our fathers." He sauntered over to the bed and threw himself onto the mattress. "I'm so tired of being locked into this castle, Light," he muttered. "I want to do something that really matters. I'm full of socializing with these fools just because father hopes I will someday turn into a social success like you. We both know that's never going to happen."_

_Light opened his mouth to resist, but L shook his head and smiled a little. "No, don't even start. You know as well as I do that they don't really like me, excluding a precious few of them. They are kind to me because they adore you, and of course, because my family is wealthy. They have been told to 'be nice to the Lawliet boy'. If it weren't for Light and my family, I would be mostly alone, and I can't say I would miss them much. I know it's because I'm weird and proud, so it's mostly my own fault, anyway."_

"_But you can't help that you're afraid of other people," Light added gently. "If they don't like you, they shouldn't like me either, because we're both so proud. I think it's more that they don't like being around you, because they don't know what to say to you, and that makes them feel guilty." Light lay down next to his friend, digging something from his pocket and pressing it on L's open palm. "Hey, L. This is for you."_

_L blinked, bringing the small object – a handmade wooden locket – in front of his eyes, dangling it above his head. "But you already gave me a birthday present," he said, looking up at Light questioningly._

_The younger boy shrugged. "It was from my family. This one's from me." He reached out and opened the oval-shaped locket. Inside it, there were two Ls carved into the dark wood – for L Lawliet or for L and Light, not even Light was sure. "I know you don't wear jewelery, but I want you to keep it somewhere near anyway. It's supposed to protect you. Like a charm or something."_

_L grinned wryly. "Isn't that a bit superstitious?" he teased before giving a short laughter and reaching out to place his hand on Light's shoulder. "Thank you, Light," he said and, in a fit of gratitude, pulled the other boy closer and brushed his lips against Light's._

_Light froze at the sudden contact, and L released him as quickly as he had brought him down. They stared at each other with wide eyes, Light frozen in a half-sitting position, and L with his fingertips raised to his lips, lying on the bed._

"_I'm sorry," L said hastily, "I don't know why I did that..."_

_His words were silenced by a pair of lips on his own. L shifted slightly in surprise, gasping into Light's mouth as his skin came into contact with the other boy's. All reasoning left his mind, and in a dazed haze he brought his hands up, burying one of them in Light's auburn locks and grasping the back of his shirt with the other._

_They were clumsy; their kisses were messy and sloppy and involved a lot more teeth than they had anticipated. Their shaking hands and curious fingers seemed to meet only elbows and knees as they skimmed across their heated bodies, but there was something enticing in the way L's white skin stretched over his prominent hipbones and collarbones, something thrilling in the way Light's breath hitched when L's wrist brushed against his groin as he explored lower._

"_Wh-what was that?" L gasped when Light jolted violently as he shifted again, his hips raising and momentarily touching Light's hips._

_Light didn't reply, but attacked the side of his neck more feverishly than before, his hands sliding lower and lower along his body, until one of them slipped underneath his somehow opened pants. The dark-haired youth threw his head back and arched his body against the contact, his blunt nails digging into the teenager's narrow shoulders._

_A sharp gasp and the shattering of porcelain teacups was all it took to break their trance. A young maid stood at the doorway, her hands still up as if holding the tray she had just dropped, staring at them in horror._

_Before either of them could utter a word, she had turned on her heels and dashed off. L pushed Light off him, blushing furiously as he had to stop to take the other boy's hand out of his pants, and scrambled up, trying to dress up in haste. Light followed him as quickly as he could, re-buttoning his shirt and wriggling into his jacket; they both knew how important it was to stop the girl before she got to L's father. Lord Lawliet had never hesitated punishing his son for the slightest reasons, and this one probably counted as the primary sin in the earl's eyes._

"_Light -" L's hand reached out to grasp his as they left to chase the maid. "You should leave – I'll take care of this..."_

"_Are you mad?" Light turned around to stare at the boy. "I'm not leaving you alone!"_

"_Please," L tried the magic word, squeezing Light's hand. "I'm scared he'll be so mad he'll hit you too. I promise, I'll meet you tomorrow..."_

_Light grimaced, but he couldn't say no to those eyes, and, as shameful as it was, he couldn't help himself – he was deeply afraid of the man L called his father. As much as his heart ached for leaving L alone here, he knew he'd only make matters worse by being still present. Maybe the earl wouldn't even believe the maid..._

"_Tomorrow," he whispered, pecked his friend on the lips and started running._

_But tomorrow came and went, and there was no word from L._

_By the next night, Light was so worried that he sneaked out of the Yagami Manor and went to see the boy himself. He only got to the gates when a terrified scream and the sound of shattering glass reached his ears._

_He looked up, and could do nothing but watch with wide, horrified eyes, as someone fell from a broken window in the fourth floor. The body hit the ground, its arms and legs twisting into unnatural ways; its head rolled so Light could see its face, and he had to bite into his hand to not shout. It was the maid from the night before._

_He felt eyes on him – not the empty eyes of the broken figure lying on the ground, but eyes with so much feeling that they burnt his skin. Slowly, Light turned to look at the window the maid had fallen from._

_Behind the broken glass, someone was looking straight back at him; someone with dark, wild hair, someone with that pale, delicate body Light had held in his arms just the night before._

_

* * *

_

"It's not her blood."

Light turned to look at L, who was, in turn, looking at his fingers. Apparently he had touched the painting on the wall. "What do you mean?" he asked tiredly. He had covered Misa Amane's corpse with his jacket, finding he couldn't stand looking at her. He knew his father had been planning a marriage between the two of them, and the thought had made him withdraw from this sweet, overly energetic girl who had once been his friend, forcing some distance between them. Now he felt like he had betrayed her.

"It's not warm anymore," L replied in a low voice. "Miss Misa was in the company of others just a moment before she was murdered. She was out of my eyes for ten, maybe fifteen minutes. She must have left the company of her friends just after I left, and even then she must have been killed instantly."

Matsuda, who had been standing next to them along with some others, looking pale but determined, stepped forward, his fists clenched as if he would have very much liked to punch the younger man. "What the hell is wrong with you, L?" he yelled, forgetting – or leaving out – the title. "How can you speak so coldly? She was your childhood friend too! How can you be so calculating and analyzing?"

Light stepped closer as well – ready to protect L or to hit him too, he didn't know. L didn't move, and didn't look back.

"Would you want her murderer to get away with this?" the dark-haired man asked quietly.

Matsuda shuddered and shook his head, suddenly looking miserable instead of hostile. "No... Of course not. I want him caught... I'll do my best to help the police."

L glanced at him and nodded slightly. "Then please go find that wounded maid and the doctor, and ask the doctor to come here once he's done tending to her. She would appear to be our only witness, so make sure she's not left alone for a single second. The murderer might come back to finish his job."

Matsuda swallowed and went to search for the maid; L turned back to the bloody wall, and Light joined him. L had realized that Matsuda wanted to do anything to help, but couldn't stand being in the same room with the corpse of his friend, so he had sent him to do something useful – somewhere else. Was that thoughtfulness or just practicality?

"Excuse me! Sorry! Police coming through!"

Light turned around to see two familiar faces approaching. "Mr Lester and Mr Aizawa," he greeted them, nodding curtly. Aizawa, a good friend of his father's, nodded and smiled briefly back at him; Lester's greeting was slightly cooler.

"Young Yagami. Always where the murders happen. I should have known..."

Light regarded the man with an icy expression. "She was a friend of mine, Officer."

"I'm very sorry," Lester replied, more to be polite than to express any real compassion. Then he sighed and waved his hand in a slightly dismissive manner. "Very well, then. Since you have once more been present with your sharp head, please, fill me in. God knows we have solved cases with your observation skills and brains before."

Light could feel L's eyes on his back as he coughed and started his story. "The victim is Lady Misa Amane, twenty-three years old. Seen in the company of her friends ten or fifteen minutes before being found like this. Her maid, Rem, was apparently wounded in the fight against the murderer -"

"... or the victim herself," Lester muttered. "Everyone is a suspect until proven innocent, lad."

Light shrugged. He had known Misa and her faithful maid servant all his life, and knew very well that nothing in this world could have turned Rem against her. "Unlikely, but possible," he admitted. "She is being tended to by a doctor as we speak, and as far as I know, she hasn't yet uttered a word after the... event. We have requested that the doctor join us here once he's finished."

Lester nodded while Aizawa walked slowly to the covered body of the young woman and lifted Light's jacket slightly to peek under it. The man grimaced and turned immediately away.

"Victim has been cut across the chest in the shape of an X," he told his superior in a slightly shaky voice. "And shot with a bow; there is an arrow stuck right in the middle of the cuts."

Lester shook his head. "Disgustingly artistic. Isn't it enough to kill a girl in one way?" He eyed the text on the wall with a frown. "Aizawa, you have kids. Isn't that a line from an old nursery rhyme?"

Aizawa looked confused, so Light opened his mouth again. "Yes, it is. It's the last line of the first stanza of _The Death and Burial of Cock Robin_."

Lester's ice blue eyes were on him again. "Can you remember the first stanza right now? I'll have someone dig the whole rhyme out later, but right now I think the first one might offer us some insight."

Light frowned. How did it go again? Sayu had sang it just today...

"_Who killed Cock Robin? I, said the Sparrow_," L recited suddenly, startling him and everyone else. He had been so silent that they had almost forgotten he was still there. "_With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin_."

Aizawa eyed the raven-haired man with a puzzled expression; Lester's eyes lit up with recognition after a moment. "Well, if it isn't the new Earl Lawliet. It's a pleasure to have you back."

"Yes, sticking my nose into your work and dragging the poor Yagami kid along into troubles," L replied dryly, and Light chucked a little; Lester had muttered those words countless times when they had been children and had been convinced that their help was necessary for the policeman to be able to do his job properly.

The ash-blond man grunted disapprovingly, but his lips twitched slightly upwards. "Well, after your disappearance it turned out that Lord Yagami could stick his respective nose into my work quite well even without your help. And I'm smart enough to admit that it has been of help more than once... But back to the case at hand. According to this nursery rhyme, I can understand the arrow, and I can see the connection between a cock robin and Lady Amane, who, I have been told, was like a chirpy, bright-colored little bird both by nature and by appearance. But why the slashes? An arrow to the heart is enough to kill a small girl, so why cut her and go through the trouble of having to hit exactly the crossing point with the arrow?"

"The X might refer to a popular children's game called cross murderer, where drawing an imaginary X on the victim equals murder," Light responded, feeling slightly ill at the memory of the game now in this context. "Though in the game the X is drawn on a person's back."

Misa had been the victim last time, too... but this time, she wouldn't get up to laugh and give the murderer a kiss. Full understanding of the situation finally reached him, clenching a cold fist tightly around his heart.

Misa Amane would never get up, never laugh again... never kiss again.

"What makes you think the murderer specifically meant to hit the crossing point?" L asked curiously, tilting his head; Light closed his eyes for a moment to abandon the sorrow for now. He would mourn later, when the murderer had been caught.

Lester glanced grimly at him. "Ah, you haven't heard. I suppose you haven't been back for very long." He flicked his fingers at Aizawa, who nodded and went to close the doors to the ballroom, where the guests were still gathered, worried and scared and slightly angered, leaving only the two policemen, Light and L in the corridor with the corpse.

"This is already common knowledge, but we don't exactly want to spread the rumor," Lester started in a low voice. "Strange murders have been occurring lately, at an alarming pace. At first, only known criminals got killed. It's a shame to say this, but the truth is that no one really cared what happened to them, so not much was done to catch the culprit. But more and more people started to die, and eventually, the killer moved onto those labeled as decent citizens – shopkeepers, officers, servants. Lady Amane is the first noble victim, though. As we searched for a connection between the original victims, who were all criminals, and the later ones, we discovered some pretty nasty things from the so called 'good' ones' past – rapes, murders, abuse, blackmailing. Not a single one of them was what you'd call pure."

L blinked his wide eyes. "I find it hard to believe that Miss Misa would have participated in anything illegal – at least intentionally. Yet you are clearly thinking that she was killed by the same person."

Lester glanced down at the red dress and black shoes that peeked from under Light's jacket. "Who knows? I can't see her as a criminal either. But the way it was done bears a very clear resemblance to Kira's way. Every single one of them was murdered in a somewhat poetic way, or left in a position resembling a famous painting, or something like that. Nursery rhymes seem logical."

"The murderer is called Kira?"

It was Light's turn to speak. "Yes. This is the most worrying part of the case. We do not know how it started, but Kira has been gaining followers as a steady flow for months. The Kira Cult was originally just small groups gathering in secret to gloat over the death of criminals, but now the situation is getting out of hand. The Cult is now a wide underground organization, almost religious in their Kira worshiping. Some apparently actually believe that this murderer is God himself; some have started 'helping' Kira by committing murders copying him. It has even been suggested that the Cult _is_ Kira." He shook his head and glanced at L. "They use masks in their meetings, so you can never know who is actually a Kira follower even if you catch one of them. For all you know, I could be one."

"What an unpleasant thought," L said.

Lester shuddered. "Well, I'll be bloody happy to get that case off my shoulders. London has requested for Deneuve's help. They say he'll arrive soon and take the reins. If his reputation is anything to go by, he'll solve the case in a matter of hours..."

Light was surprised to hear that. Deneuve was a famous French detective, quite possibly the best in the world. His age and appearance were unknown, for he was also a master of disguises – or so it was said – but the word was that he had solved numerous cases that had seemed unsolvable.

"Ah, Deneuve," L said in a bored tone. "Another user of masks. What if he's Kira? It wouldn't be surprising for a detective to want to get rid of criminals."

"Wouldn't that leave him unemployed?" Aizawa asked dryly.

"Yes, that's right." L rolled his eyes. It looked incredibly strange. "The protectors of law and justice need the criminals to feed their families."

A faint knock came from behind the closed doors of the ballroom, and after a short moment, Matsuda peeked in. "Gentlemen, Doctor Mikami is here," he announced before letting in a very tall, dark-haired man with glasses. After that, the young nobleman disappeared, apparently to look after the wounded maid. Polite nods were exchanged, and Mikami proceeded to kneel down next to Misa's corpse and taking the jacket carefully off her. Obviously, there was nothing he could do for the girl at this point, but a medical exploration could give them a lead.

Light thought he caught a movement in the corner of his eye when the doctor entered, but when he looked at L, the man seemed as cool and unmoving as ever. The auburn-haired man frowned, trying to remember if L had known the young doctor before his disappearance, but as far as he knew, Mikami had been studying in another town back then.

"She was cut first," the doctor confirmed quickly. "And shot afterward. The crossing point of the cuts is right in the middle of her chest, so the arrow didn't hit her heart. She died quickly, mostly due to excessive loss of blood in a short time. That's all I can say at this point."

Lester and Aizawa nodded, and L stepped forward. "Could you possibly run some tests for the blood? We believe that the blood on the wall is not hers. It has probably been painted before she died, and it might help us if you could confirm that the blood wasn't hers."

"'Us'?" Lester repeated, cocking a brow.

L locked his dark, half-lidded eyes with Lester's icy blue ones. "Like Mr Matsuda said, she _was _my childhood friend," he drawled.

Doctor Mikami, who had momentarily frozen at L's voice, was now looking at him with an expression that could almost rival L's own in unreadability. "Certainly, Lord Lawliet. I don't have the necessary equipment with me, but if you don't mind waiting until tomorrow, I can run the tests at my laboratory tonight. Will that be soon enough?" After receiving a short nod, Mikami turned to gather examples of blood both from the wall and from Misa's wounds before getting up and dusting his black jacket. "I apologize for my unprofessional attire and lack of equipment; I was here as a guest tonight. I will naturally take examples of the maid's blood as well," he added to L before the man could ask for it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll retire to my office. I'll meet you gentlemen tomorrow at the police station."

The doctor left, and Lester sighed. "Well, I suppose we'll have to start questioning everyone. Aizawa, if you'd please..."

Light and L followed the two policemen into the ballroom, and almost immediately their eyes landed on a rather annoyed redhead dragging a young unconscious girl in his arms.

"Finally!" Matt scoffed, shoving Sayu to Light, who gathered his sister into his arms in a slightly gentler manner. "She passed out right after you had run off, and no one had time to help me and I couldn't even find a place to lay her down, so I had to carry her all around!"

"Thank you for taking care of my sister," Light said sincerely.

The boy seemed a bit startled. "Well, uh, no problem... Lord Yagami," he added hastily as L blinked his wide eyes. "I couldn't exactly leave her alone, now could I?"

Light smiled a little, before stomping down his pride and turning to look at L. "I would like to thank you two by inviting you over for the night. Your castle is farther away, and you must be tired, since you only just returned today. I believe you haven't even settled in yet... and there seems to be much to discuss."

L hesitated momentarily, probably thinking about the encounter on the balcony. "The police..."

"They have heard the two of us already," Light replied impatiently. "Sayu is unconscious and your brother was seen in the company of Sir Matsuda, Lady Takada and others at the moment of Misa's death. There is nothing we can do here tonight. I know one of those carriages out there probably has all your luggage in it, and the Yagami Manor is on your way to the Lawliet Castle anyway. At least drop by for a cup of tea."

Ah, so the raven-haired earl could still be pulled from the same strings, Light thought as L's eyes visibly brightened at the thought. Tea – with spoonfuls of sugar and preferably with something sweet to eat – was something L had always enjoyed; it was good to know that some things never changed.

"Very well," L agreed, glancing over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Lester and Aizawa questioning and attempting to calm down the irate guests. "I believe we have the time to... drop by."

* * *

1) Whyyy is L so OC?

I figured he'd be that way if his life had been like it is in this fic. Also, obviously he was a bit more emotional and expressive as a kid, and more like the L we know and love as an adult. And no, the jeans are not going to make an appearance in this fic... XD They would kinda destroy the atmosphere.

2) When L asks Mikami to check the blood, he's obviously talking about DNA tests. DNA was discovered in the late 19th century, but as far as I know, they didn't use it to catch criminals back then. I apologize for the historical error. :D Then again, some people used science for purposes like this around the late 1800's, but were often banned as witches or something like that... and L definitely strikes me as someone who would utilize every way imaginable (and have people calling him a witch XD). Originally, I had L ask for their blood types, because I thought they had been discovered earlier, but when I looked it up, I found that DNA came, in fact, before blood types... Oh well. This is exactly why I'm majoring in English and not biology or its history...


	3. Sleep

A/N: Uhh. If I haven't replied to your review, it's only because I'm miserable with computers despite being such a nerd. I check my email in a hurry, then forget to reply later, and then I have no idea if I've already replied to this person or that. So... collectively, thank you, everyone. ;_; You deserve a big, warm hug and a huge piece of your favorite cake/whatever you like, because I was thoroughly discouraged after publishing the first chapter, and now you've brought at least some of my inspiration back. Unfortunately, I'm still going to be very, very slow. Most of my inspiration is elsewhere and I'm having a lot of troubles with this story, BUT I still like it very much and hope to keep updating.

Anyways, _thank you so much_.

* * *

Chapter 3

**Sleep**

After accepting Light's invitation for tea, L had sneaked out of the Takada Manor, smuggling Matt away from the gory scene and police interviews under the pretence of taking Light's unconscious sister home to recover so she could be interrogated later. On the way, they had barely exchanged a word aside from explaining the situation to Matt, who had only known that something bad had happened.

Two hours later found L staring at the unmoving, sleeping form of his brother with accusing eyes.

"That was not necessary," he informed Light, reaching out to arrange the boy into a more comfortable position on the couch. They were drinking tea in candle light in the sitting room of Yagami Manor; naturally paranoid, L had sniffed his tea before sipping on it, and was now cursing himself for not checking Matt's cup as well.

Light smiled slightly. It looked a little strained, as if the younger man was attempting to push the grief of losing a friend to the back of his mind and block it with the smile; only a little, though, for Light was far too good an actor to allow his sorrow show on his face unless it was a part of his plan. "He's just a kid, and the day has been very heavy. Maybe he _did_ just fall asleep."

"I can smell the drug in his tea, Light."

Light cocked his head with a puzzled expression on his face, leaning back on his chair. "Ah, but you see," he said, apparently deciding to spread his cards on the table, "the tea had a faint scent of something foreign already when I went to add the sleeping drug." The pale hand stroking Matt's red locks halted for a second before resuming what it had been doing, now in a slightly defensive manner. "I have merely granted the poor kid a good night's sleep, so the real question is what _you_ are keeping him on."

L felt cornered. Had he been that careless? No, he realized – he had merely forgotten that Light's mind was working on the same level as his, and what was enough to fool anyone else would never convince his childhood friend. All cards on the table it was, then. After all, Matt _was_ in deep slumber and wouldn't know a thing for at least six hours. Sayu had been taken to her room as soon as they had arrived, and Light had sent the servants off to bed or to some errand as well, so there was no danger of being overheard.

Light was the only one he could imagine sharing this story with.

"I'm keeping him drugged," he started slowly, and Light's eyebrows shot upwards – apparently he had not expected L to tell his secret so soon, "to help him suppress a couple of... recent memories. The conditions in which I found him were... terrifying, at best. Basically, the drug affects his subconscious; he has already pushed those memories to the back of his mind to protect himself, but the drug should stop them from emerging in nightmares. In the beginning, the memories resurfaced and caused a panic attack every time he reacted strongly to something, so I chose a drug that would have a calming effect as well."

Light frowned, nodding and looking at the redhead. He was no longer toying with L; his expression showed genuine concern. He knew L had a soft spot for abandoned or maltreated children, but he also knew the young earl had himself been through enough abuse to not be affected by anything minor. What had happened to Matt to make L take such extreme actions to protect his mind?

"That explains why he didn't freak out at the party like everyone else," the auburn-haired man concluded before locking his golden eyes with L's charcoal ones. "Would you care to tell me what happened? This seems very uncharacteristic of you."

The raven-haired earl hesitated only for a moment. He had already decided to tell Light. "A few months ago," he began in a quiet voice, lowering his gaze to look at Matt rather than Light's observing eyes, "I was in France, trying to negotiate with an old acquaintance of my father. He was unwilling to agree to the deal, and I had to accompany him to numerous dinner parties and get-togethers to get onto his good side." He decided to leave it out that he had been trying to coax information, rather than a financial deal, out of the despicable old nobleman. "One night, he and his business partners went out to celebrate, and I was taken along. I knew that the place was a brothel, but... I only realized what kind of a brothel it was when the children were brought to our lounge."

By now, Light's face had turned very pale. "The _children_...?" he gasped, his shocked gaze turning to Matt.

The white hand on the boy's locks stopped and remained there, as if to protect him from Light's eyes. "Yes," L whispered, and even after all this time he found that his mouth had become dry and his heart had grown cold at the memory. Taking a sip of his tea to wet his lips he continued. "Their ages ranged from seven to fifteen." He shuddered slightly as the image of the children flashed in his mind: both boys and girls, some dressed in the clothes of the opposite sex, all standing there with empty, tired eyes and waiting to be picked by one of their guests. "They were kept drugged to make them agreeable – and to prevent them from escaping, because the drug they used was highly addictive. I was lucky they hadn't been able to get Matt completely hooked yet; it wasn't too hard to change the harmful drug into something more helpful."

"Figures," Light muttered through his teeth. "I had heard of places like that... but to think people actually _go_ there..."

Suddenly a tiny smile, oddly childish and cruel at the same time, rose onto L's pale lips. "Well, this particular place is currently under some heavy construction... You see, there was a fire soon after I left. Very strange. It was incredibly lucky that all the children were saved... sadly, a few customers, along with the owner of the place, failed to escape the fire. The man who took me there was among them. Very sad. Very strange."

"How unlucky," Light replied dryly. "And how about the poor children who lost their home?"

"Oh, there is a place in Winchester..."

"... where, surprisingly, you have spent your later teen years in. What an odd coincidence."

"Odd indeed."

Light chuckled slightly, but then the smile slipped off his lips, and he turned his attention back to Matt. The boy was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the discussion that took place in the room – probably unaware of the subject of their discussion as well, if L's drug worked as it should. He was very pale, much like his brother, and the red locks curling over his face made his skin look almost translucent in the candle light. "So is Matt... was he...?"

L started shaking his head even before he spoke, serious again. "Not for long, at least. He had only been there for a few days; as the youngest, I got to choose my... company first, and I picked him because his eyes were still alive. They hadn't been able to break him yet." He exhaled tiredly, sipping on his tea, and then putting it back on the table; it had gone cold. "One of the bright sides about being rich is that I was able to get us a private room, where we could talk undisturbed until my time was up. When I left, I already knew I had to get that child out of that place, so I spent the rest of the night making some preparations. The next evening, I went back to buy him free -"

"You _bought _him?" Light wrinkled his nose.

"_Yes_, Light, I did, and if I hadn't, someone else would still be buying him every night for a couple of hours."

The raven-haired man's sudden fury hung heavily in the air, until Light nodded, muttering an apology. L's anger faded and was replaced with a slightly disturbed expression. "Unfortunately someone had already bought him for the night. Several someones, actually. Waving a thick stack of money in front of the greedy owner's face spoke volumes for me, and I got the permission to leave with Matt immediately, so I went to get him...

He paused, a distant look in his eyes, probably thinking back to that night. "I still don't know for sure what happened in that room. When I got there, two of the men were dead – whatever madness had suddenly stricken them, it drove them to kill each other. The third one was still alive, but bloodied and beaten, as if he had fought for his life against the other two. He – he seemed to believe that since he had survived, Matt now belonged to him."

The dark-haired earl trailed off; his long, white fingers entwined themselves with Matt's hair for a moment. Then he released the fiery locks, as if he couldn't stand touching them anymore, and reached for the cold teacup, cradling it in his hands. Light waited patiently – not sure if he did so because he was too shocked to say anything, or because he wanted to give the other man some time.

"I shot him," L finally said in a hollow voice.

And Light couldn't fool even himself: it wasn't disapproval or disgust he felt at the man's confession. It was _pride_. "That's my L," he said, very softly.

L smiled a little and opened his mouth to say something; but at that moment, a young maid came in and asked in French if they wanted more tea. They declined; but L requested for a blanket for Matt – in clear, fluent French, to Light's slight surprise. L had hardly spoken two words of French until his fifteenth birthday; the Lawliets had originated from northern France, and refusing to learn the language of his ancestors had been one of the few ways in which young L had been able to rebel against his father.

The maid took away their teacups, not even batting an eye at the fact that they were all half-full, and returned after a while to bring the requested blanket. After confirming that her help was no longer required she curtsied, wished them a good night, and retired to the chambers of the servants.

L got up and bent to drape the blanket carefully over Matt's sleeping form, tucking the corner of the fabric under his chin in a clumsy way that gave away his inexperience. Light watched him quietly, marveling this new, different L – the one who looked like he'd been deprived of all friendly human contact for so long that he no longer knew what to do when feelings like affection managed to snake their way into his closed heart.

He got up, walking to stand close to his childhood friend's hunched form. L looked up and straightened his back almost completely as he felt the younger man's hand touch his shoulder. Face to face, they stared at each other for a long while; Light's hand raised to caress L's cheek, and the familiarity of the situation brought L back to what they had been talking about on the balcony.

"I didn't throw her through that window," he said quietly; the hand on his cheek didn't falter. Slowly, Light spread his fingers and slid them along the other man's skin, burying them in his black hair. "... Dr Mikami can confirm that."

This time, Light did stop, blinking. "Mikami? But wasn't he..."

"... Studying? Oh yes." A mirthless smile graced the earl's lips for a moment. "But not in another town, like he told everyone. Our family has always been well-acquainted with medical studies, drugs and poisons... and of course, my dear father's more violent tendencies offered a young doctor-in-training numerous opportunities to try his skills in practice. He was tending to me when she died, Light. You can ask him. I don't know who it was, but it can't have been me."

Light was momentarily speechless. Why, it only made sense that his stable and luxurious life would turn into a confused mess the moment this man walked back into his life! He had been so sure – no, he had _known_ L had done it... and what was he supposed to believe now? But this... this made _sense_. The old earl _had_ been the kind of man who would beat his own son until he couldn't move because he thought the boy had done something terribly wrong...

… And besides, his fingertips were still moving in small circles along the raven-haired man's scalp, and his hair was soft and feathery on his skin, and L's eyes were drifting closed at the feeling of the gentle touch, and somehow Light couldn't bring himself to care about that foolish maid anymore – it had been _her_ fault that L Lawliet had been wrenched away from him all those years ago, so maybe she had _deserved _to die like that...

"Is that why you're really here?" Light whispered as he slowly pulled the other man closer. "To find out who killed the maid and staged you? Or to find Kira... Deneuve?"

L's eyes were fully closed now, and his lips stretched slowly into a small smile. "I knew you would figure it out," he sighed contently, tilting his head slightly to give the other man a better access to the side of his head. "Mm... Both. Or rather, Deneuve is here to catch Kira... but L has merely returned home and intends to clear his reputation." His eyes flickered open for a second, the dark, mysterious orbs peering at Light for a fleeting moment. "After all, I have someone to look after, now. I need to actually consider my..."

He trailed off. Getting jerked forward by his jacket and kissed fully on the lips could do that to even the most unemotional of men.

L wasn't sure what it was. Oh, he knew it was a kiss – after all, it wasn't their first – but try as he might, his furiously working mind couldn't determine what kind of a kiss it was. It was slow and careful – the way Light held his chin with his fingers was just as delicate as the fluttering feeling in his chest – and it was desperate, because L could feel his own fingers hooking themselves in Light's clothes as if to say '_Don't let go_', and it was sweet and it was loving just as the way Light's lips moved against his so very gently, asking and not demanding an entrance; and it was passionate, like the tight grip Light had on his raven black hair, and rough with all the strength L used to pull Light closer to himself -

… And in any case, while his mind had been processing the quality of the first kiss, it had turned into two, and then into three, and then into several more.

Later, when he thought about it, L still couldn't figure out where he had gotten the strength, the willpower, to speak with those lips trailing from the corner of his mouth to the side of his neck and with those hands skimming across his lithe body. "W-we should leave," he heard himself gasp.

Light's lips, teeth and tongue were dancing on his skin. "Yes, you're right," he managed to whisper between the kisses. "We can't stay here..."

"No," L said, tightening his grip on Light's shirt, not knowing whether he was pulling the man closer or pushing him away. "Matt and I... we should leave."

Light stopped and turned to look at his friend, shocked enough to actually let it show. "You can't be serious," he blurted out.

"Light, we haven't seen each other for years," L tried to reason, though he had hard time explaining to himself why he would want to do such a thing. "We have both changed in seven years, and I – I would like to start anew... You don't even know me right now."

Light blinked. "What are you talking about? If it had been up to me, this would have happened seven years ago! After you left, I would have given anything to have you back, and now that you are here I'm suddenly not allowed to touch you?"

L took a deep breath and finally managed to untangle his fingers from Light's jacket. "Light, you also believed that that person – the L you missed and wanted to return to you – had committed murder for revenge," he said quietly. "Too much has happened since then. I'm not the same L anymore, and I would rather not continue on his footsteps."

The auburn-haired nobleman fell silent, closed his eyes and sighed before finally, reluctantly, letting the other man go. "Fine, I can see your point. If you want a fresh start, that's what I'll give you. I did believe that time had changed my feelings for you, but... it would seem that I was wrong. But if you'd rather wait to make sure, that's fine by me."

L gave him a small, wistful smile. "Thank you, Light. Apparently I was right to trust you to understand... even after all these years." He glanced at Matt. "We'd better head to the Lawliet Castle... I want to settle in and start a whole new life here."

"Oh," Light grinned a little sheepishly, "I sent your servants to sleep... I honestly thought you were going to stay, especially after the boy fell asleep as well..."

The young earl frowned a little at that, but couldn't be angry at his friends embarrassed expression. "I'll drive," he said, shrugging slightly. "You can send them to the Castle tomorrow. Don't look so insulted... it's just that I have this feeling... that we should go home tonight."

Light studied him for a moment, but now L avoided his eyes, so he gave up and shrugged his shoulders as well. "Alright. Let me get someone to ready your carriage..."

A servant was sent to take care of the task; soon he returned to inform that the carriage was ready to leave. Before L could react, Light had scooped the sleeping redhead into his arms, blanket and all, and insisted on carrying him out. Matt was positioned inside the carriage, as comfortably as possible, and L headed to the driver's seat. Before he could climb up, Light stopped him, turned him around and stole one more kiss; one that L found himself eagerly responding to.

"I suppose we'll be seeing each other a lot because of the case," Light said as he helped the other man up.

L chuckled half-heartedly. "Yes, another case that isn't actually ours to solve, if you ask Mr Lester... There is something oddly familiar in this situation."

Light widened his amber eyes and blinked innocently. "What do you mean? _Every_ case in this town is ours, L. Whatever would they do without us?"

L smiled thinly, thinking about the corpse of Misa Amane and the unnerving fact that she – one of his rare childhood friends – had died the same day he had returned. "They just might live happily ever after," he muttered. "Good night, Light. We'll meet tomorrow."

* * *

The head butler of the Lawliet Castle was still awake when they arrived, as if he had been expecting them. Knowing Quillish Wammy, L wouldn't have been all that surprised if that was the case, even though he hadn't announced his return beforehand.

"Welcome home, sir," the man greeted him as he scrambled into the hall with Matt on his arms. Another servant darted from the darkness and lifted the boy from his grasp before heading upstairs. "We have prepared a room for the young master next to your chambers," Quillish continued, motioning two young boys to go take care of the carriage, the horses and the luggage.

Ah, so he _had_ somehow known that L was going to return tonight, and bring along an addition to the Lawliet family...

"Would you like to have a cup of tea or maybe a bath before retiring for the night?"

"No, thank you," he replied, ascending the stairs two at a time already as he spoke. "I'm very tired; I think I will head straight to bed."

"Very well, sir. Sleep well." Quillish bowed and left to finish his work; L wondered if the man ever slept. At least he hadn't changed at all in the seven years he had been away; and he acted like he hadn't even noticed such an amount of time had passed. It was almost as if he had merely returned from a short visit to a distant relative somewhere in the countryside...

_Lawliet..._

He blinked, glancing around himself in the empty corridor. He felt like he had heard something – like a distant whisper, or maybe the sound of the wind whistling... After all, this was a very old castle. Oh, it was probably just the wind.

After checking on Matt – still fast asleep with an unusually peaceful expression on his young face – the earl locked himself in his own room, deciding to actually go to sleep, for once. He could feel his body begging for it; after all, he hadn't slept for two or three nights – or days, for that matter.

What he hadn't thought about was _where_ he would sleep. His bed, though it had clearly been cleaned and dusted just moments ago, had last hosted him seven years ago when he had been beaten beyond the ability to move by his own father... and before that – oh, _God_...

_Lawliet..._

Something tickled at the edge of his consciousness; a shiver ran down his spine, and suddenly the heat that had began to rise at the thought of Light was gone, just as quickly as it had come. Frowning slightly and shaking his head to clear his mind, the young earl changed into night clothes – apparently Quillish had taken the freedom to refill his wardrobe – and crawled into the bed.

What a way to return... welcome home, indeed.

And when he closed his eyes and drifted into sweet slumber, he thought he could almost catch a sing-a-song voice just beyond his hearing...

_Lawliet, Lawliet..._

_... why so quiet_?

* * *

Once again, I have Kaori Yuki to thank for some of the ideas here. Hope you liked it and weren't too weirded out by... anything. :D Please review to prevent the depression from rounding back on me?


	4. Divine

_A/N: I apologize if I haven't replied to your reviews... That's simply my bad memory acting up! You all know I love and cherish every single one of you for leaving me a comment, and every comment is important to me. You're helping me get better. _

_Oh, and oops. I suddenly realized that since Light's father is still alive, the title "Lord Yagami" probably belongs to him exclusively... and Light would be Mr Yagami or something like that. (I suppose.) I blame the lack of titles and such in my first language. XD Please forgive me. Since I've already fallen this far, I think I'm going to stick to having people call Light Lord Yagami, if you don't mind too much. I seem to generally abuse and misuse titles and forms of address rather shamelessly..._

_Oh my gosh, what is this? A long chapter? A long chapter with a PLOT?  
_

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* * *

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Chapter 4

**Divine**

"You will encounter a great danger. There will be a fire... but it seems it will leave you unscathed. Hm... there will be a funeral soon... but I'm afraid you will experience more loss in near future."

Sayu Yagami stared at the small, pale hand holding hers, transfixed by the emotionless voice of the fortune-teller. She had been hurrying towards the Takada Manor when this street kid had stopped her from his shadowy alcove merely by calling her name – how had he known that? - and asking if she would like to have her fortune told.

"I truly hope you don't actually believe him," a familiar voice droned suddenly from behind her.

Sayu spun around, accidentally yanking her hand free, and threw her arms around the lithe form of Earl Lawliet. "L! I never got the chance to say hi to you yesterday." The raven-haired man stiffened in her embrace, but apparently he managed to remind himself that this was the little sister of his best friend, because he seemed to relax slightly.

"And you!" Sayu turned to smile at the red-headed boy standing behind the earl; it was a bright smile, but a little forced, a little tired, as if the girl was doing her best to remain positive and cheery even after the death of someone she had known very well. "You must be Matthew. Light told me you watched over me when I fainted. Thank you for that."

Matt muttered something; L stopped following their conversation when he felt a tiny hand tugging at his jacket. He turned and was met with a pair of eyes that reminded him strangely of his own, wide and seemingly empty as they were. He had once been told that his eyes were like the black, black sky at night, sprinkled with distant stars, endless and far beyond human understanding. This boy's eyes seemed to reflect the gray sky above them as well, but the endless space behind them was shielded from the world There was a shining in them, like the sunlight hiding just behind the veil of clouds, and L found himself wondering briefly what brightness this boy might show should that veil ever be drawn aside.

"Would you like to know your future, sir?" the boy asked, his lips curling into a tiny smile, as if he had known exactly how taken aback the young nobleman had been by his eyes.

L blinked slowly. "Only if it's brighter than my past," he agreed after a moment, more to humor the boy than out of any real interest, holding out the hand that was not holding a cane; the street child's – for a child he still was in his opinion, roughly Matt's age – small, cold fingers took a delicate hold of it.

The boy was silent for a while, an odd smile spreading onto his lips. "Brighter indeed," he replied finally, looking up, straight into the earl's eyes. "You already know there will be more grief – more victims. There is a shadow behind you... but its movements don't match yours. I can hear... bells. Church bells."

L felt his stomach twist unexpectedly at that. _The bells_... How had the boy known to say that?

"And there is an angel..." The slightest frown formed on the fortune-teller's pale face. "A strange, one-eyed angel that can't fly..." He shook his head, as if slightly confused by what he had seen, and seemed to regain his composure. "But at all times, there is a strong, bright figure standing by your side."

"Light," L heard himself whisper, and the fortune-teller smirked.

"Oh, so you are allowed to believe him and I am not?" Sayu's teasing voice drifted into his mind.

"Of course I do not believe him," the earl replied, snapping out of his reverie. "I do not believe in supernatural. And you, young man," he continued, turning to the young fortune-teller, "if you intend to live on this, maybe you should start telling people what they want or expect to hear. No one wants to pay for hearing bad news."

The boy smiled serenely. "I could have told the lady about the mysterious, tall dark man who has recently re-entered her life, which is what most young ladies want to hear, but..." He shrugged, wrapping his far too big coat tighter around his thin body. "It would seem to me that anything romantic developing between you two is extremely unlikely, so I decided to leave that out."

The mere thought made Sayu giggle in an irritatingly knowing way; Matt snorted behind his hand, and even L felt a small, quirky smile tugging at his lips. "Fine, you have a point there," he admitted, paying to the boy and turning to extend his arm to the young lady. "I presume you were on your way to the Takada Manor, so shall we continue together?"

Sayu agreed, taking his arm and allowing him to walk her the rest of the way. Matt turned to follow them, but was stopped by a gentle touch on his arm. Starting in surprise, he glanced at the boy over his shoulder.

The fortune-teller was looking at him with a strange, unreadable expression, holding onto his arm for a short moment. Then the boy blinked his eyes slowly before retreating back to his position huddled against the wall of the alcove, carefully cocooned into his coat. "You will be in great danger soon," he said quietly. "Stay close to that man."

Oddly disturbed by the seemingly emotionless declaration, Matt tried to wave it off with a nonchalant shrug. "I planned on doing that anyway," he replied before turning again and dashing after L and Sayu, who had stopped to wait for him. He could have sworn he could feel those strange eyes on the back of his neck, but when he looked back, the boy was already talking to someone else.

* * *

The Takada house looked quiet on the outside; the guests had been allowed to go home after being questioned by the police. Five policemen, the members of Takada family, and a couple of people willing to help were now the only ones present. Misa Amane had been moved from the corridor, but the crime scene was yet to be cleaned; the police wanted to inspect it carefully before any evidence could be cleared away.

"Good morning, Lord Lawliet," Aizawa greeted them in the hall, where he had been talking with a very tired-looking Lord Takada. "We were expecting you. Officer Lester is at the crime scene with Lord Yagami; they requested that you join them once you arrive." He turned to look at Sayu and Matt, looking confused. "And how can I help you?"

"My brother said the police would want to question me about yesterday," Sayu replied; her voice cracked at the end of the sentence, but she held her head high, with her lips pressed together in a tight line. "I fainted so they couldn't do it last night."

"The same goes for me," Matt said, adding hastily, "Excluding the fainting, though."

Aizawa nodded in understanding and excused himself to Lord Takada and L to take the two teenagers to the lord's office where they could be interrogated. Lord Takada exhaled deeply, shaking his head with a sad look on his wrinkled face; he seemed to have aged ten years in one night.

"What a shame," he said tiredly. "To think that poor Miss Misa had to meet such a terrible end... and under my roof of all places. I would very much like to think that that, too, was a part of God's plan... but, well, young Lawliet, when you grow old you find it harder to believe in fate."

"I try not to believe in fate," L replied in monotone. "For someone who has dedicated his life to stop murderers and other criminals, fate can be quite depressing." The elderly man nodded gravely, indicating that he knew exactly what he meant. "How is your daughter handling this? Miss Kiyomi was a very good friends with Miss Misa, wasn't she?"

"The best," the man sighed. "She's not doing well, I'm afraid. Hasn't shed a tear after the initial shock of the news wore off, or spoken a word. She just lies in her bed, refusing both food and company. I can only hope she'll recover before it gets serious." Another sigh was released. "Ah, well, I suppose you'll be wanting to join young Yagami. Please, make yourself at home – as much as you can in this horrible situation. If you need anything, feel free to ask."

The nobleman excused himself to go to work, leaving L to find his way to the crime scene himself. Having memorized the house during his short stay the night before, it didn't take long before he could hear Light and Lester's voices from behind the next door.

"Good morning, gentlemen," he greeted them as he entered the corridor. Lester nodded curtly, Light gave him a quick smile that faltered as soon as it appeared. L could understand why; it didn't feel appropriate to smile here, where their old friend had met a horrible end just the night before. "Has anything new occurred?"

Lester nodded with a grave expression on his face. "It seems that we have received a message from the murderer," he explained. "Miss Misa's body was taken to the chapel of the Takada Manor last night, while the police were interrogating the guests. Two men were guarding her all the time - men I truly trust, and I can count people that fall into that category with one hand – but despite their guarding, when Dr Mikami removed the blanket from her corpse this morning, there was a note struck through the arrow. The letters had been cut out of newspapers; we have been trying to get fingerprints but it seems the bastard used gloves."

L tilted his head slightly to the side. Now this was getting interesting... "What was the message?"

"The three first lines of the second stanza of _Who Killed Cock Robin_. '_Who saw him die_?'" Light recited. "'_I, said the Fly, with my little eye_...'"

"... _'I saw him die_'," L finished, frowning. "Since the last line of the first stanza was painted on the wall next to Miss Misa, it would seem logical that the murderer intends to kill someone else and leave the last line of the second stanza in close proximity of the second victim. This would appear to be a hint, so maybe we are offered a chance to save the Fly..."

"But that doesn't make sense," Light disagreed. "As far as I know, no one received a warning about Misa's death." Lester nodded to confirm this; if there had been a warning, it had never found its way to their hands. "And in the first stanza, the Robin is declared dead, but in the second, it's merely stated that the Fly witnessed his death. Killing Rem would not follow the script."

"Rem?" Lester blinked.

"Obviously, she is the Fly who saw the Robin die," L evaluated, not taking his eyes off Light. "I see your point, Light, but no one else dies in the song, so why would a murderer keep providing us with parts of the rhyme if not to kill off the other characters of the poem as well? If someone else were to die later in the song, we could expect the killer to follow the original plot, but since the only victim of the story is already dead, it seems to me that the murderer is going to do away with the rest of the cast as well."

"That's true," Light admitted. "In any case, we must keep an eye on Rem at all times."

"Ten eyes, preferably, and from every possible angle," L murmured. "Has she said anything?"

Lester shrugged his broad shoulders. "Not much, and nothing of actual use. She woke up early this morning. Looked around with those eerie yellow eyes of hers, paid special attention to our police uniforms, and then glanced at the bandages around her torso. Smart woman, really; didn't start screaming or wailing. Didn't even ask what happened, or if Miss Misa was alive. She had seen the arrow hit her, she knew why the police were here, and the sight of her own wound convinced her that it hadn't been merely a nightmare."

"How did she react?"

The ashy-blond man shook his head, his cold blue eyes betraying some reluctant sympathy. "Mentally speaking, she died that moment. She's hardly responding to anything, and just keeps looking at the ceiling with this empty look in her eyes. It's still possible that she is responsible for Lady Amane's death and is now contemplating on what she has done, but in that case we are dealing with two potential murderers, or a murderer and a jester, because she can't have left the message on the corpse last night."

L noticed that Light flinched slightly at the word 'the corpse'. This was their childhood friend they were talking about, after all, so maybe that was understandable.

"Did the interrogation offer us any insight?" he asked to change the subject.

Lester seemed to pick on his thoughts. "A little," he said, apparently quite happy to be able to tell there had been some development. "Though it doesn't narrow our suspicions; on the contrary, actually. Based on the interviews with every guest, the murderer was an outsider. We talked to everyone that had been invited, and they had an alibi, or were last seen so far from the crime scene that it would be physically impossible to get there and back again quickly enough to avoid detection. Yes, we tested the theory by running the distances ourselves," he added at L's skeptical look. "Several times. The murderer cannot possibly be anyone of the guests... except for the four we haven't heard, yet."

L nodded gravely. "Light, his sister, my brother and myself, I presume. I assure you that all of us have been seen at the moment of the murder. Our siblings are being interrogated as we speak, and you can ask the other guests to confirm our alibis."

The policeman looked rather uncomfortable. "I do not doubt that, but I'm sure you understand that I have to do my job. You two with your intelligence are of extreme help, but you were in this house when Lady Amane was killed, and I'm obliged to investigate you as well."

Light and L exchanged blank looks, their eyes betraying their annoyance; they knew, however, better than to argue.

"Why don't we go and see if our witness feels any better, then," L suggested mildly, if only to escape this corridor for a while. Light agreed eagerly; they excused themselves to the policeman and left, Light leading the way.

* * *

_Mentally speaking, she died that moment_.

Lester's words echoed in L's head when Light opened the door to the room Rem had been taken to and let him in. The two policemen turned to them the moment they heard a sound from the door, their hands going to their swords and pistols.

"It's me," Light raised his hands, as if to show that they were empty. "I brought Lord Lawliet to see the witness." The men relaxed slightly and gave them a curt nod, but did not take their eyes off them when they moved closer to the bed, L noted approvingly.

The room was big and quite luxurious; apparently it was the one Misa Amane had stayed in whenever she had been visiting her friend. Soft Indian carpets covered the marble floor; the white walls seemed to light the room even though the sky behind the high windows was gray with clouds. An enormous painting of an angel, surrounded by bright light, and Virgin Mary kneeling before him, was hanging on the wall next to the bed; this glorious environment served only to make the occupant of the bed seem more miserable and abandoned.

Rem was sitting on the bed, slumped forward and staring at her hands resting in her lap, unmoving, unspeaking, apparently uncaring of the pain this position caused to her injured ribs. In her fingers she was holding a simple black rosary, complete with a blank silver cross gleaming on her palm.

"Miss Rem?" L tried to get her attention, bending forward to take a closer look at her face.

The woman reacted by turning her head to face him – very slowly, but at least it was a response, which was a good sign.

Her dry, bloodless lips parted and a rough, rasping whisper stumbled past them - "He is no God who murders those who are faithful to him," she breathed, staring straight at L with her yellow eyes, pupils dilated and unfocused.

The young earl blinked but did not recoil from the madness evident on her face. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly, aware of the stunned looks of Light and the two policemen on his back.

He regretted not stepping back when the servant's hands suddenly grasped his collar and jerked him forward so harshly that he almost stumbled onto the bed. The tight grip was cutting his oxygen to minimum, and the cross of the rosary she had still wedged between her fingers was pressed painfully against his throat.

"Even if," Rem gasped, tears gathering in her mad, feverish eyes, "even if she was so full of sin that all the angels turned their faces from her, you took her under your wing, you who are no God, you, angel of betrayal – only to slay her?" Her hands pulled him closer, gripping tighter, until the young earl's sight was beginning to blur dangerously, but she seemed to look at someone just behind L's head rather than L himself.

"I beg of you, God," she wailed with a voice so full of desperation that it brought pity even into L's well-protected heart, "let all her sins be mine, and her soul be cleansed..."

Dark spots were swimming across his blurred vision when L suddenly felt cool hands struggle the feverishly warm ones from his collar, turn him around and touch his face, his neck, his collarbones – Light.

"You are no God," he heard Rem whisper bitterly, quietly, as she withdrew back into her shell, and then Light was wrapping his arms around his shivering shoulders and excusing them to the guards. He was dimly aware of being walked out of the room, of the door closing behind them, of entering another room, but it was only when he felt the cushions of a couch under him and Light's cool hands returning to their task of examining his neck for injuries that the real world seemed to slowly return to him.

"I'm fine, Light," he muttered as his sight began to return to normal, trying to push the hands away.

"Let me make sure," the younger man replied irritably, slapping his protesting hands away and tilting his head back to inspect the damage. L's head fell against the cushions and, too drained to fight back, he let it rest there, his mind still on the exchange that had just taken place.

"Do you think I said something that might have triggered her?" he asked after a while.

Light shook his head. "Not that I noticed. You said her name, and asked what she meant, and that's all you said and did. I don't think that was the trigger. I believe it was us entering the room and breaking the silence that made her spill her thoughts to us." He leaned forward to plant a kiss on the raven-haired man's exposed throat and then straightened, smiling a little. "Luckily it looks like she didn't harm you, though I was a little worried for a moment there. She had such a tight grip, I had to literally fight to make her let you go..."

L nodded at his theory, throwing the man a small frown for the sudden kiss, and sat up a little straighter, feeling more like himself. "Yes... I don't think she meant to harm me or even attack me. She seems to be way too far gone for such a reasonable thought – I don't think she even realized she was doing it..."

Light sighed. "It's horrible to see her like this. She's been around for as long as I can remember, like Misa's guardian angel..."

L was quiet. He did not feel like saying it, but he had a feeling that whether the killer returned or not – and he was fairly certain he would – Rem would not live for too many days. Badly wounded, delirious and having lost her reason to live, she would probably perish soon either because of a high fever or simply because of not eating.

"I... would like to see Miss Misa now, if you don't mind showing me to the chapel" he said after a while, not meeting Light's eyes. "Yesterday I reacted like a detective – I would still like to say my goodbyes."

* * *

Matt was exhausted. The interrogation had been such an oppressive situation that it had snuffed out whatever strength he had had, and that hadn't been much to begin with. Moving into a new town, the strain of keeping up the pretense of his fake identity, the commotion and danger the night before, and a poorly slept night had left him a little drained and now that the police interview was over he was sorely missing his new, soft bed.

Being a Lawliet had its sides.

"Hi, Matt," the voice of Lord Yagami drifted into his consciousness. He looked up and blinked at the smiling young man. "You look a little tired. Are you feeling alright?"

"Uh – yes, Lord Yagami," he replied quickly, regaining his senses suddenly. He had apparently wandered around the house aimlessly, and as he looked around he had to admit that he had no idea how to get back.

"Please, call me Light," the young lord said, offering another small smile. "L and I are like brothers, so you're almost a family member now."

Matt had a feeling that Light was looking at him very strangely, but as soon as he dared to look straight back at the man the look – or the ghost of it – was gone.

"I take it that you have already been interrogated," Light continued. "I just took L to bid his farewell to Miss Misa – she was a childhood friend of ours. Would you like to sit and wait with me until he returns from the chapel and my sister from her own hearing? I hear you came by foot, but we could go back together in my carriage."

Meekly, almost hesitantly, Matt nodded and followed his brother's best friend to the delicate set of a small table – hardly larger than a flower stand – and two chairs at the end of the corridor, next to a window that showed a beautiful view of the large fake pond in the Takadas' garden. Heavy, royal blue curtains framed the alcove and partly hid them from view; the scent of the hyacinths in the vase was overwhelming.

"You look tired," Light repeated his earlier words, looking at him with a worried look on his face, half hidden by the flowers between them. "Didn't you sleep last night?"

"No, I slept very well at first," Matt replied readily and then almost gasped as he realized where he had fallen asleep. "Oh – I'm so sorry, I fell asleep when we were still visiting you – you must think I can't behave at all, but you see, I lived in the streets before my brother found me, so you mustn't blame it on him – I'm really very sorry -"

"Matt, Matt – it's fine, calm down." Was he seeing things or did the man look rather satisfied when he said he had slept well in the beginning? The look was gone, once again, when he blinked; maybe the flowers and their heavy scent that was making his dreamy mind buzz was playing tricks on him... "Why didn't you sleep properly later, though? Did something wake you up?"

"Nah, it's more like... just dreams. Weird dreams, that's all." Really weird. "They were about L, but he was... different. Like a completely different person."

"Ah." Suddenly, Light's face darkened – though at the same time, he looked a little sad. "Welcome to the mysterious castle of the Lawliets, where reality has sometimes very little to do with _realism_. You have just been introduced to their current ghost from the past – Beyond Birthday, L's cousin. They really did look alike; they could even fool me, at times."

Alarmed, Matt tried to shake the sleepiness off his shoulders. What was this? How could Light know who it was after such a short description? And it had been a _dream_! A dream was something his own subconscious had made up, right?

Apparently Light could see the questions in his eyes, for he glanced around the heavy velvet curtain to make sure they were alone, and leaned a little closer to continue.

"B, as he wanted to be called," he explained in a low voice, "died almost ten years ago in a riding accident; the pony threw him off her back, and he landed at an awkward angle. Since then he has been haunting the Lawliet Castle – almost everyone who stays the night there encounters him in his dreams at least once, and sometimes other things happen – things disappearing and moving on their own, doors closing and opening by themselves. I know it's not logical or strictly speaking even possible, but I've seen him in my dreams, too. I generally trust only what I can touch, but there is something undeniably supernatural going on there."

"It's only L who doesn't see him, and these mysterious things rarely happen when he's around. I'm not even sure if L believes any of our stories. And it's not like anything bad has happened; it seems to me that he's just trying to scare us for the heck of it. He was just the type of person who would... and he was extremely fond of L, almost like a twin brother might have been, so my theory is that he just can't go on to the next world for as long as L is still alive, so he's killing time waiting for him."

Matt gaped at the auburn-haired man. Was he serious? Or did he think he would be freaked out by a simple ghost story?

"I'm not making this up," Light assured him after seeing his expression. "I know it sounds unbelievable, but that's how it is. It's a little spooky but not that bad when you get used to it. Or at least that's how it was seven years ago, when I last spent time at the Castle..."

Frowning slightly but half-believing against his will, Matt opened his mouth to ask more, when for the second time within two days an ear-splitting shriek cut his words short.

* * *

Misa Amane had been beautiful in life, and now she was beautiful in death. Her lips were just as bloodless and blue as they had once been red and full; she looked peaceful, but very cold, very dead.

Biting his lip, L lifted the blanket that had covered her a little more; the arrow was still stuck through her chest to avoid losing any evidence, but the piece of paper that had apparently been there had been taken off. The blood on her dress was now nothing more but dried, darker red stains on the velvet.

Disgustingly artistic.

"_Are you L? Is your dad really evil? My dad says he's a devil, but I'm not supposed to know that. My dad says to be nice to you because otherwise your dad will get mad, but Dad also said I can't be too nice to you because he doesn't want me to marry you. That's just stupid, like I would want to marry my friend! I'm not scared of your dad."_

"Miss Misa," he whispered, leaning down as if to avoid anyone overhearing them, "it scares me that you died the night I returned. It makes me fear it was my fault, somehow..."

"_Hey, want to see my new swing? Dad had it set up just today, it's in the garden – listen, you can try it first if you want! Dad always says it's ladies first but my Mom told me there's nothing more important in the world than friends and that you should be nice to your friends, because power and wealth can be fleeting but friends are not. I'm not sure what it means, though. But since you're my friend, you can try it first even though you're not a lady. You're kinda pretty anyway."_

L had been six when he had moved to the Lawliet Castle from the countryside and met Misa for the first time. He couldn't remember saying a word to her that day, but somehow, when they had been leaving, the girl had kissed his cheek and announced that now they were friends forever.

Misa had been one of those people who didn't need the other person to be cooperative to be friends forever; she had enough love and devotion for two.

"I never even said thank you," L said after a while, slowly and quietly; the hushed whisper seemed to echo in the empty chapel. "I know you first talked to me only because your father had ordered you to, but you forgot about that soon, didn't you? By the end of that day, you were convinced it had been your own idea. You never realized how hard it can be to love so unconditionally... You just loved everyone and everything, whether they... whether I... deserved it or not."

The silvery cross, decorated with black pearls, resting on her joined hands, the string entangled with her white fingers, reminded him that this was a chapel, and he was talking to a recently deceased person. Misa had been a devoted church-goer, he remembered...

So, more for her sake than his own, L laid his hand on the two small and cold ones, covering the cross with it, and prayed, for the first time since leaving London seven years ago.

"Lord," he said quietly, trying hard to not see anything but the dead girl's face and still feeling the heavy gazes of the paintings, the stained glass and the crucified statue behind the altar on his back; feeling as though he could look over his shoulder and see the pews filled with people from his past, all staring at him with accusing eyes, "if you are there, take her soul under your care. Be kind to her, like she was kind to us. Even if she was killed by Kira, judge her by her kind heart and not by whatever sin Kira saw in her."

Was it his imagination or was the chapel suddenly filled with shadows? Was the crucifix towering dangerously over him, threatening rather than redeeming? His fingers were so cold, so cold, like the coldness of the skin under them was slowly seeping into them – were the freezing claws of Death somehow reaching for him through Misa's fingers?

"Lord," he whispered, more frantically now, "why do people always end up dying when I'm around? How is that possible? Is it my fault? Am I doing something to cause it? Please tell me... I have people I care about, now – I always did, and it took her death before I realized it – I don't want to run away anymore... but how can I face my past, my fate, my responsibilities without placing anyone in danger?"

Church bells were ringing in his ears – why, why were they ringing? No, they were not supposed to ring yet – not before the lid of the white and golden coffin closed over Misa's angelic face – was it raining outside? He could hear the rain beating against the painted glass, he could smell the wet soil already – it would rain like that on her funeral day, like it had rained on Beyond's, like it would rain on his own –

– Or was it _his_ funeral now?

"My lord?"

With a sharp intake of breath, L lifted his hand from Misa's and whirled around while the softly asked question was still echoing through the chapel. Doctor Mikami was standing there in the middle of the aisle, looking at him with worry and confusion in his steely black eyes.

"Is everything quite alright?" the man asked.

Trying to will his frantically beating heart to calm down – God, Mikami could probably _hear_ it in the silence of the chapel – L forced a small nod. "Quite. Are you here to inspect her?"

His fingers were tingling as warmth returned to them and blood begun to circulate in his veins again. He couldn't bear to glance at Misa again, but a cold fear still gripped his heart. Had that been his overactive imagination? The hereditary madness his parents and his cousin had suffered from acting up? Or had it been the girl's betrayed soul, seeking for revenge?

He had barely even gotten to say hello to her before she had been murdered...

"Ah... no. I already did that," Mikami was saying. He looked hesitant for a moment, but then started walking briskly towards him. His footsteps echoed in the room. "I was merely passing by and wondered when I heard a voice... but I presume that was your grace bidding her farewell."

"And praying for her soul," L added, a little defensively, because he thought it was appropriate. He hoped to any deity willing to listen that the man hadn't heard the latter part of his prayer.

Mikami stopped right before him, eyed him expressionlessly for a moment, and then humbly bowed his head in respect. "Indeed, my lord," he agreed in a low voice, before brushing past him and leaning over to pull the white blanket over the corpse again.

What was that supposed to mean?

L started to turn to ask, started to flinch at the glimpse of Misa's cold face he got as he turned, started to speak – and stopped at the shrill, distant cry.

It was the kind of cry that dripped blood, and L and Mikami were out of the chapel and running towards the sound almost before the blanket had touched Misa's face. The shriek had come from Misa's room – Rem's room – _of course it had_ – and, as L had known at the initial sound, they came in too late.

His eyes glided across the two fallen guards – dead or alive, he had no idea – across Light standing right next to the door, holding Matt so the boy's face was buried in his shoulder to keep him from seeing what was on the other side of the room, across the traces of struggle littering the floor, and settled on the painting on the wall, the painting of a kneeling Virgin Mary and an angel.

It had been repainted... with Rem.

The woman's feet, dripping blood, were hanging slightly above the floor; she was pinned to the wall by a sword struck through her chest, right where the angel in the original painting had been; the painted wings, now colored red, still showed grotesquely behind her back. There was a pool of blood where her right eye had been, and the face of Virgin Mary was concealed by a message scribbled in red: _I saw her die_.

With her little eye – just one eye, that was why the right one had been plucked out – the Fly had seen the Robin die.

'_A strange one-eyed angel that can't fly..._'

Without thinking, L turned around and ran. He had to find that fortuneteller.

* * *

_1) Chapter count: 4. Corpse count: 2. Oh dear._

_2) I had a hard time trying to sneak a little bit of LightxL into this chapter, until Light got clever and snogged his sweetheart's recently abused throat under the pretense of checking for injuries. Light's... well trained at feeling for serious internal bleeding with his lips?  
_

_3) Mello and a few others will be making an appearance in the next chapter~ And you probably guessed already that the fortuneteller was Near...  
_

_4) _"Ten eyes, preferably, and from every possible angle."_ ← That's 19th century L longing for his 21st century security cameras. :D_

_Please review!  
_


	5. Unforseen

_**A/N:** I'm 21! Well, no, technically I'm not... yet. But it's past midnight so it's my birthday! XD I meant to upload this for Halloween and something more cheerful for my birthday, but whaddayaknow, I got busy. This time my time was consumed by organizing several Halloween parties just as much as by school work..._

_To the reviewer going by the name **Taftie**, I couldn't reply to you straight away because you were not logged in, but your comment made me incredibly happy. I adore Kaori Yuki, Cain Saga and Death Note (obviously XD) and I'm extremely honored that you think this is a good mixture of them. Also, reviewer by the name **The Princess Of Whatever**, I'm equally honored that you think my plot is even remotely as intelligent as the one in the original DN series! A huge thank you to both of you, as well as to the rest of you – this time I at least tried to reply to everyone! :D_

_Comments like this make me think really big of myself. (But they also make me insanely happy. ;_; )_

_As for this chapter, it's mostly a filler and an information chapter with some relationship development on several fronts - and finally, one of the most important characters introduced! Unfortunately the next chapter will probably take a while, yet again... The weeks before Christmas will be extremely busy, and on December 25th I'm leaving to Tokyo for two weeks... Hopefully you enjoy reading it!_

* * *

Chapter 5

**Unforseen**

Having lived most of his life in the streets, Near River had been in his fair share of trouble and knew when it was approaching. Schooled by his fourteen years of stealing, lying and cheating to avoid punishment, he now knew when to disappear to avoid trouble altogether.

This time, however, trouble was tapping him on the shoulder before he knew it was coming.

Near turned and blinked slowly at the dark-haired nobleman he had stopped earlier that day. "Would you like to know your future, sir?" he asked mildly, pretending he didn't remember the man; but the haunted look in those dark, shadowed eyes told him the man remembered him well enough.

They always returned when his predictions proved true – but never this soon. He changed places every day; usually they could not find him anymore and were unwilling to look for him in the streets of London.

The nobleman eyed him wordlessly for a moment, breathless from running. "The... the angel," he said, finally, still panting.

Near gave up. "The one-eyed angel," he replied, admitting he knew what the man was talking about. He had a sinking feeling that this involved death, and if he had predicted something that ended up getting associated with someone's death, he was bound to get questioned.

"Yes," the man whispered, finally regaining his breath. "The one that couldn't fly." A strange, chocked chuckle escaped from his throat; for a moment, the unnaturally dark eyes looked slightly crazy. "She's certainly not flying anywhere, anymore."

"Ah." Near closed his eyes. He had been right, then. "A friend of yours? I'm deeply sorry."

The man hesitated. "... You could say so," he said, finally, but didn't sound like he meant it.

Near sighed. "Your friends are coming," he told the man. "The living ones. The redhead and the bright figure by your side I mentioned earlier."

The dark eyes widened slightly. "You can tell?"

With a low chuckle of his own, Near gestured behind the man's back; he turned and looked slightly embarrassed at seeing the aforementioned two running their way. Nothing supernatural about that, then.

"L!" the auburn-haired man – a nobleman as well, by the looks of it – called as they approached. "What was that – what was that about? Why did you run away? Do you have any idea how suspicious that seems?" Gasping for breath, the two stopped when they reached them; Near eyed them curiously, especially the redheaded boy, who was now chalky white under his freckles. "Who is this?" the other nobleman asked then, noticing Near for the first time.

"A fortune-teller," the man called 'L' replied, turning back to Near. "Young man, my name is L Lawliet. I'm currently investigating the death of my friend, and now of her maid as well. I would like you to come with me."

"Am I accused of something?" Near asked mildly. Lawliet... so that was why the man had such an alluring, dark aura of mystery and black magic about him. It was a well-known name even in the streets.

"Are you guilty of something?" Lord Lawliet asked back, without batting an eye.

"I am guilty of plenty of things," Near responded in the same manner. "However, I do not kill and I do not take part in planning such an act. I'll come, but only because I don't wish to be accused of someone else's dirty deeds. And I expect to not get tortured or handed over to the police. I'm an orphan with no social status, and I would hate to be thrown into an orphanage... or a prison."

Lord Lawliet frowned; the other man and the boy looked slightly uneasy. "I guarantee there will be no torture. But I can't say the same about not being taken to a..." He trailed off, glanced at the redheaded boy, then at the other man, and seemed to consider for a minute. "... I also guarantee that you will not be handed over to the police," he said slowly after a moment of thinking. "Unless you turn out to be guilty, of course."

"A safe return," Near demanded, "and I don't want anyone coming after me later, either."

"If you wish so," Lawliet agreed. The other man was casting weird looks at him; the redhead stared at the wall next to Near's head, looking faintly sick.

"Fine, then," the fortune-teller consented. "I will come with you."

"No," the nobleman said suddenly with a small frown, "you will not. If I take you to the Takada Manor, the police will take you under their care... and we can't have that. No, it's better to tell them we could not find you... You will go straight to the Lawliet Castle – you do know where it is? - and let yourself in through the kitchen door. If you encounter anyone, tell them L sent you and that you are to keep Matt company while I'm busy – that should keep them happy. I will come to talk to you tonight, or as soon as I can come home."

The man had a point, so Near simply nodded and turned to leave; the earl, however, reached out to stop him once more.

"If," he said in a low voice, "you so much as think of going into hiding instead of going to the Castle, I will hunt you down and have you imprisoned for the rest of your life." He glanced at his companions. "Right now, we should head back or _we_ will look guilty."

* * *

After the fortune-teller had trudged off, L, Light and Matt dashed back to the Takadas' house, thanking their good stars that the boy had been so close to the house – they had only been gone for a few minutes.

"Yagami!" Aizawa was roaring at them the moment they stepped into the house. "Lawliets! What the hell is going on? I want some answers, and I want them right now, you little scoundrels! The only two we haven't interrogated over Lady Amane's murder – dashing off the moment someone else gets killed! Are you trying to solve this case or get executed for double murder?"

L opened his mouth and Light frowned in response to the outburst, but Matt beat them to it. "I'm sorry," the boy whispered in a weak voice. "I – I couldn't stand it – all the blood and – and – I just had to get out, I completely lost it for a moment..."

Aizawa looked taken aback and slightly ashamed as he took in the boy's thin, shivering form and lowered head. "I – sure, no one would want to see something like that – I guess it's, it's understandable – heck, kid, don't go crying, no one's blaming a murder on you because you couldn't stomach seeing a corpse! You two –" He shot a wild look at L and Light, clearly torn between telling them to help him and handcuffing them.

"Oh, good," a cool, collected voice intervened, and they all turned to see Doctor Mikami stepping into the hall. "You found him. Only our good Lord knows what awful things can happen to a distraught teen if he gets lost in the city..."

Surprised but hiding it, L and Light glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes, and L wrapped his arm loosely and awkwardly around Matt's shoulders. "Indeed," he agreed unhappily, hoping he looked like a worried older brother. "Thank God we caught him so soon."

Pretending to be religious came so naturally to him, even after all these years.

Matt hung his head even lower, still very pale, still trembling for real. "I'm very sorry," he said quietly. "I'm already causing you trouble..."

"Nonsense," Light interrupted sharply, shooting an imperious glare at Aizawa. "Mr Aizawa understands perfectly that we had to get you back before we could focus on the murder. Policemen above all know to put the living before the dead."

"Sure," Aizawa muttered, looking slightly rejected.

"Excellent. That makes my job so much easier." Mikami smiled grimly. "Now, may I suggest that we move to a place where everyone can sit down and we can be interviewed? Preferably a room where the younger Mr Lawliet can lie down; he doesn't look too good at the moment. Then, after you have determined that I was not present at the moment of the murder and will probably not tamper with the evidence, I would like to inspect the body... and the guards. I believe they are alive."

* * *

Turned out the guards were, indeed, alive, and they both woke up within an hour. Their story only served to add to the mysterious string of events: they had both heard a faint sound, and then – according to their story – they had both lost their eyesight.

"It wasn't natural," they said, terrified but strictly professional. "One moment we see just fine, the next we're blind and hear the victim struggle with someone and scream, '_You, it's you_', and then we're knocked out..."

It seemed unbelievable, but a few tests with candlelight and sudden mock-attacks proved the two policemen were truly blind. After Mikami had inspected them, he had to reluctantly admit that they may indeed be honest; they had both received a blow to the head that had caused them to lose consciousness, but neither had sustained any damage to the back of his head which, according to the doctor, could have caused the sudden blindness.

Mikami and L had been seen rushing out of the chapel after the scream by the family's parson and they were thus cleared of suspicion, but Light and Matt had no alibi they could prove. A maid had seen them talking in the corridor soon after Matt had been allowed to leave the interrogation, and the next time anyone had seen them was Lester glimpsing them entering the room after the scream.

"If we accept that the scream was the victim's scream as she was stabbed with the sword and not made by one of our guards getting knocked out after it, it seems unlikely that they could have gotten to the door, clean of any blood, so soon," Lester admitted almost grudgingly. "However, they were at the door so soon after the scream that they should have bumped into the killer – the windows were closed and are, I'm told, rusted as such, so the only way out would have been the door."

When asked, however, Light and Matt denied having met anyone. They had sprinted to the room Rem was in the moment they had heard the scream – they had been only one corridor away – Light leading the way and Matt running a few steps after him, not knowing where they were headed. The door had been closed; Light had run into it to break it in instead of trying to see if it was locked. Matt had dashed in right after him, gone terribly pale at the sight of the blood splattered all around the room and the men lying limp on the floor, and stumbled backwards into Light's arms in an unconscious attempt to get away.

Remembering what L had said about the boy's past and the state his nerves were in, Light had grabbed him, spun him around and crushed his face against his chest in the faint hope that if the boy couldn't see the horrors, he wouldn't freak out – and right then L had come flying through the door-frame, jumping automatically over the broken-in door, and skidded to a halt, staring at the horrid scene. Mikami had almost fallen to his knees, having failed to notice the door lying on the floor.

There had been no one else.

Then L had whirled around and run off as if the Devil himself was hot on his heels, and as Light had yanked Matt along and followed, he had caught a glimpse of Lester's incredulous expression as they passed the man in the corridor.

He knew very well that this made him a murder suspect.

However, with the lack of solid evidence, Lester had to let them go, pressured by Mikami who insisted that Matt was clearly extremely shaken by the recent events and needed rest before the doctor could allow anyone investigating him as a potential murderer - "Do you want to completely wreck his health?" the man had demanded angrily.

Knowing now that this man had received his training as a doctor by tending to L – and thus, by allowing the former Lord Lawliet to abuse his son as much as he pleased – Light found it ironic that he was now so vehemently defending L's supposed younger brother. Perhaps it was out of guilt – perhaps to somehow repay L for the suffering Mikami had allowed him to go through.

Still, he was thankful enough to offer the doctor a ride.

"Where are you headed?" Mikami asked immediately.

Light glanced at L, talking quietly to Matt in the corner. "To the Lawliet Castle. I'm taking them home and I intend to stay the night. Of course, I must drop my sister home on the way, so anywhere along the way is fine by me."

Mikami informed him that his apartment was conveniently on the way to the Lawliet Castle, but Sayu gave him a harder time. The girl was in hysterical tears by the time the police allowed her to see her brother, and she absolutely refused to go home without him; Light, on the other hand, was adamant on not leaving L and Matt alone tonight, for several reasons. Like once before, seven years earlier, Sayu then threw her arms around L, begging him to let her stay over as well; stunned and more than slightly alarmed by a woman's tears, the raven-haired earl was very quick to agree.

The ride to the Castle was quiet. Sayu sat right next to Light, clutching his arm and sob-hiccuping every now and then; L sat on the opposite side of the carriage, stealing worried glances at Matt, who was still very pale and hadn't uttered a word after recounting his story to the police. Mikami sat on L's other side, his steely dark eyes locked with Light's. When it was time for Mikami to get out, Light disentangled himself from Sayu's arms and stepped out to keep the door open for the doctor.

"Thank you for the ride, sir," the doctor said as he stepped out, throwing a morose glance at the sky that had decided to entertain them with a gray, drizzly rain. "I appreciate this."

"My pleasure," Light replied with a curt nod, letting his hand slip from the handle of the door as if it were slippery with rainwater; the door fell almost shut, and he was fairly certain the rain covered the rest of his lowered voice. "... Mikami. When you trained to become a doctor, you lived with the Lawliets, did you not?"

The man visibly started, an alarmed look flashing through his guarded eyes before he forced it away. "... I presume Lord Lawliet told you," he said, and Light admired him for being so calm. After all, with his knowledge, Light could arrange it so that he could never work as a doctor again, at least anywhere in London.

Not bothering to answer, the young nobleman cut straight to business. "That night... before he disappeared," was all he got out of his mouth before the doctor was shaking his head vigorously.

"If you're talking about the dead maid, I can guarantee it wasn't him. He was asleep then; I had drugged him. He needed sleep to heal – and it's not as if he could have moved two whole steps, anyway. I had never seen him in such a bad shape before. I was watching him sleep when I heard the glass shattering."

Light felt a stab of guilt at his heart – both for being the reason L had been so badly hurt so many years ago, and for doubting his words enough to ask Mikami about it. L had been honest, then...

For seven years, Light had accused his best friend of a murder he hadn't committed.

* * *

"Personally," Mikami added, in a very low voice now, throwing a hesitant glance at the almost-shut door of the carriage, "I always thought it was the old earl himself. To... ah, dispose of the witness. He wouldn't have wanted the knowledge to leak to any outsiders."

That was certainly not hard to imagine, Light thought bitterly to himself as he bid the doctor farewell and climbed back into the carriage; L shot him a questioning glance but returned his attention to Matt almost immediately. L's father had indeed been the kind of man who would reward the maid who had told him about the incident by throwing her out of a window to her death.

But he had been so sure he had seen L in the window...

"Is Light always going to drug people in order to be alone with me?" L sighed, looking lazily at the two sleeping figures of their younger siblings – Sayu slumped against the armrest of the couch and Matt against L's shoulder.

"As charming as the idea seems, I hope drugging people is not the only way I can get some alone time with you," Light chuckled. The joke seemed empty under the gloom of the two deaths they had witnessed a little too close up, but there was a drop of truth hidden in it. "No, I merely figured they both need some _dreamless_ sleep after what happened today. Especially Matt... no one should have to see things like that, least of all him. I'm worried how this might affect his mind."

"Do you care?" L murmured, cradling the redhead on one arm as he moved to stand up and lay him down.

Finding himself once more entranced by the unexpected caring evident in L's actions, Light stood up as well and walked to stand next to the other man, leaning down to brush his knuckles against Matt's cheekbone. L's wide eyes turned to give him a stunned stare.

"I... do, actually," Light said softly, straightening and turning to the raven-haired man. "Well, you care about him, and since I care about you, it's almost as if he's my little brother, too. There's something about him that just makes me want to protect him." He shrugged. "Like today, when we entered... that room. I see a bleeding corpse and two possibly dead men, and all I could think about was covering his eyes and holding him tight so he wouldn't have to see it, so he wouldn't be reminded of – that day."

L was gazing up at him with a strange expression, his lips slightly parted as if in surprise. The sudden tightening in Light's stomach and the warmth that spread across his chest at that wide-eyed expression took him by surprise; he had figured his longing for L's companionship had long ago changed into graving for his body, first to love and later – the longer the man had been gone – to abuse, but it seemed the old friendship had survived under the layers of lust and hatred.

Gently, he took the other man's pale, delicate face between his hands and leaned in closer. "He reminds me of you, too," he whispered and pressed his lips softly on L's. The slightly smaller man shivered and, almost unconsciously, it seemed, he pushed a little closer, his fingertips raising to touch Light's face as Light's tongue slipped into his mouth.

"A-hm."

_I'm going to strangle that brat_, Light thought, gripped L's head harder when the other man tried to pull back and finished the kiss at a very leisurely pace. Never mind the fortune-teller watching – he wanted this kiss way too much to care.

Finally he let L go with an unnecessarily loud _smack;_ looking actually a little flustered, the other man turned to fuss with Matt. "Good evening," he murmured to the boy standing behind the couch. "Thank you for waiting until Miss Sayu fell asleep. Matt is allowed to know about you, but he needed his sleep as well."

The white-haired boy was tactful enough to not say anything about the private show he had just witnessed; he simply stood there, twirling a lock of his already curly hair around his finger.

"What is your name?"

"Near."

And that was it. No last name.

"Near," L said as if tasting the name. "Would you like to, in exchange for whatever information you can give on this case, work for me?"

"Evaluate," the boy responded without thinking about it for a moment.

"You could live here if you so wished," L replied almost as quickly. "You would be officially under my care, so you wouldn't have to worry about the officials anymore. I could use a pair of keen ears in the streets."

Finally, Near showed some emotion – by looking extremely skeptic. "You don't know anything about me," he said. "Why would you take me in? I could stab you in your sleep. Or steal from you. Or, I don't know, rape your brother or something. Presuming the redhead is your brother."

"He is," L replied, almost too sharply, while Light struggled to not snort at the idea of this pale, childish-looking boy holding enough interest in anyone to sexually assault them. He knew very well it was often the ones with the innocent appearance that could hurt you the most (oh, he knew he himself was capable of things no one would ever believe just by looking at his appearance), but looking at the small, white figure, the idea seemed simply ludicrous.

"And," L added, "I may not know you, but I know enough of you to know that I want you under my surveillance, not acting behind my back in the streets."

The boy seemed genuinely impressed and satisfied with the answer. Apparently it was the kind of logic he could relate to. "Is there a catch?"

"If you happen to foresee any more misfortune crawling our way, I wouldn't mind you warning me before it hits," L replied dryly. "Otherwise, no."

"Oh, now we are superstitious?" Near lifted a brow sardonically.

L's lips twisted into a wry smile. "Oh no. Now... we are resourceful."

* * *

Mihael Keehl, better known as Mello, was a charming, lovable young man, and despite appearing a little ruthless and implosive at times he would have never hurt a fly – except in the very unlikely case that the fly was wanted in exchange for a remarkable sum of money.

Being an assassin, a bounty-hunter and a mercenary, Mello felt that this display of greed and calculation was only natural; and besides, he was not one of the worst cut-throats in the streets. he was picky about the jobs he took and did his best to avoid hurting – or at least causing permanent damage to – the innocent.

On the other hand, if you asked him, one could hardly be innocent and gather such sums as a reward for their head – and in any case, Mello figured that just walking around practically with a pile of gold on one's shoulders should have been illegal and punishable.

But however merciful he usually tried to be, at the moment he was in a pinch: with no money, no other jobs and an old friend finally asking for a favor he owed her. The circumstances did not leave him much room for maneuvering, and therefore he found himself in the unpleasant position of a man hired to kill a child.

Technically, the child was only two years younger than he was but, being a noble kid, his years of soft bedsheets and endless pampering could hardly compare with Mello's sixteen years of stealing, fighting, lying, killing and running for his life...

"What has he done?" he had tried to ask. Fourteen was not that young – not necessarily innocent. _He_ most certainly hadn't been innocent as a fourteen-year-old...

"I have no idea," Wedy had replied, shrugging to indicate that she didn't particularly care, either. "Apparently he's just in the way. In any case, a customer wants him dead and I can't be involved – you know we've been working very hard to win the Matsudas' trust, and we can't ruin it by staining our hands with the blood of one of their kind."

"But my hands aren't worth crap?" Mello had shot irritably.

Wedy had glanced coolly at him. "Don't be such a brat. You know it took Thierry years to get their trust – I'll slice your throat personally if you blow our cover somehow. I can't go because I'm tied here. Besides, you owe me a favor, don't you? So be careful with your flashier tendencies! We don't want to be connected to the victim in any way, but my client wants it to be a clear murder for whatever reason. Try to imitate someone else's usual style – forget being Mello. Watch out for his brother, though, they say he has really sharp eyes, and he certainly has blocked assassination attempts from some of the most famous guys out there – Higuchi and Zakk, for instance..."

"Yeah, yeah," the young assassin had muttered, waving his hand. No one could catch him in act unless he planned it!

And that left him where he was now: standing in a cheap hotel room close to the castle of his future victim, staring intently at the iron gates and the wall covering regrettably much of his view. He had investigated the area, asked discreet questions from the servants by posing as one himself, and was ready to go tonight, but something about the castle gave him an ominous feeling.

"Matthew Lawliet," he muttered, giving the gloomy yard one final glance before turning to prepare for the night, "this is nothing personal. Your head just happens to be between me and a large amount of gold. That's your sin," he brought his rosary to his lips for a moment and then hid it underneath his black shirt to prevent it from catching anything, "and I'll repent for mine when the time comes."

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_Oh Mello! 8DD Finally! This fic has been miserable without you!_

_Please review! Happy late Halloween, happy late L's birthday and deathday anniversary, and happy November 10th! xD _


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